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8r93u9 | when people go to the beach... men are shirtless with shorts (sometimes speedos 😳) and women are wearing a two piece (sometimes topless 😈) why is it that we freak out when people see us in our underwear, and we are perfectly fine when people see us in our “beach underwear” ? 🤔 | [
{
"answer": "Context is important. I'm not surprised to see a hot dog at a hot dog stand. I'd be surprised if I opened my wallet to pay for a hot dog and it only had a hot dog inside.\n\nI'm not surprised to see beach clothing at a beach, but would be concerned if I'm about to go into surgery and the surgeon shows up in a speedo.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Take your beach underwear and go to a mall nowhere near an ocean. People will still freak out. Like others has said, context. ",
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"answer": "No exact reason other than cultural norms and fashion.\n\nUnderwear evolved slowly just kike the swimsuit and bikini did, just at different paces.\n\nBut I guess is there is an arbitrary line, similar to a quote from a famous supreme court case\n\n\"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [\"hard-core pornography\"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it...\"\n\n\nKeep the idea of the words open and then compare that to the difference between underwear and swimwear (not pornography)\n\nSo the idea is there is such a fine line between a bikini and underwear that you have to see it to discern between the two sometimes.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "19167764",
"title": "Undergarment",
"section": "Section::::Trends.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 78,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Underwear is sometimes partly exposed for fashion reasons or to titillate. A woman may, for instance, allow the top of her brassiere to be visible from under her collar, or wear a see-through blouse over it. Some men wear T-shirts underneath partly or fully unbuttoned shirts. A common style among young men (2018) is to allow the trousers to sag below the waist, thus revealing the waistband or a greater portion of whatever underwear the man is wearing. A woman wearing low-rise trousers may expose the upper rear portion of her thong underwear is said to display a \"whale tail\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "19167764",
"title": "Undergarment",
"section": "Section::::Not wearing undergarments.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 93,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 93,
"end_character": 237,
"text": "Not everyone always wears undergarments between their skin and their outer clothing. Going without underwear to separate the genitals from outer clothing may be called going commando, free-balling for males, or free-buffing for females.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "38180",
"title": "Clothing",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Wearing clothes is also a social norm, and being deprived of clothing in front of others may be embarrassing. Not wearing clothes in public so that genitals, breasts (for women) or buttocks are visible could be considered indecent exposure.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "27999",
"title": "Swimming",
"section": "Section::::Clothing and equipment.:Swimsuits.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 75,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 75,
"end_character": 368,
"text": "Men's swimsuits commonly resemble shorts, or briefs. Casual men's swimsuits (for example, boardshorts) are rarely skintight, unlike competitive swimwear, like jammers or diveskins. In most cases, boys and men swim with their upper body exposed, except in countries where custom or law prohibits it in a public setting, or for practical reasons such as sun protection.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "35150726",
"title": "Dandupalya (film)",
"section": "Section::::Controversy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 31,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 31,
"end_character": 210,
"text": "\"According to the dictionary, nudity means that you are not covered with a single item of clothing from head to toe. But in this scene, I have worn a sari and I am trying to cover my body, except for my back\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "3062837",
"title": "Sexual ethics",
"section": "Section::::Individuals and societies.:Public decency.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 53,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 53,
"end_character": 1069,
"text": "Legal and social dress codes are often related to sexuality. In the United States, there are many rules against nudity. An individual cannot be naked even on their own property if the public can see them. These laws are often considered a violation to the constitution regarding freedom of expression. It is said that common sense needs to be used when deciding whether or not nudity is appropriate. However, in Hawaii, Texas, New York, Maine, and Ohio allow all women to go topless at all locations that let men be shirtless. In California it is not illegal to hike in the nude, however it is frowned upon. Also in state parks it is legal to sunbathe in the nude unless a private citizen complains then you are to be removed from the premise by force if the individual doesn't comply. Breastfeeding in public is considered wrong and mothers are encouraged to either cover themselves in a blanket or go to the restroom to breastfeed their newborn. There are no actual laws that prohibit the action of breastfeeding in public except two places in Illinois and Missouri.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "9744337",
"title": "Omorashi",
"section": "Section::::Japanese subculture.:Skirt omorashi.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 321,
"text": "Some individuals find it attractive when a woman wets herself in a skirt, since it allows for upskirt views of the accident. This can combine with uniform fetishism, and pornography with skirted performers dressed as high school girls and office workers is common, as well as depictions of skirted women in casual dress.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
6ixc32 | what happens when you get new glasses? | [
{
"answer": "Pretty much, yeah. Your brain can adapt pretty fast. An experiment with upside down glasses revealed that it takes a few weeks for the brain to adjust. The person's brain literally adapted to it, and his vision flipped itself rightside up.\n\nYour brain just got used to a slightly blurred vision and adjusted accordingly. Now you give it super sharp vision, which is kinda like seeing everything slightly magnified. You'll adjust fairly quickly.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "27612",
"title": "Sonic screwdriver",
"section": "Section::::History.:2010–2015.:Sonic sunglasses.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 73,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 73,
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"text": "The glasses appear to be more susceptible to damage than the screwdriver; in \"The Girl Who Died\", a Viking warrior takes the glasses off the Doctor's face and easily breaks them in half. Nevertheless, the glasses continue to appear via replacement or repair until the end of the season. They return the following season during the Doctor's temporary period of blindness, showing the ability to scan his surroundings and transmit the information to his brain, as well as transmit any data recorded to them. However, while he is able to tell things about a person such as height, weight, gender, age, and even heart rate, he doesn't get enough detail to know faces, clothing, etc. (\"Extremis\") He was once able to tell that a person was holding a computer tablet, but not what was written on it, as well as 'see' a combination lock but not the numbers. (\"The Pyramid at the End of the World\")\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "52301034",
"title": "Spectacles (product)",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 278,
"text": "In October 2015, a leaked online video showed an early version of the new glasses, dubbed \"Spectacles.\" In mid 2016, news outlets reported that Snapchat was hiring engineers from Microsoft, Nokia and Qualcomm. Reporters speculated that the hires were to build the new glasses. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "52301034",
"title": "Spectacles (product)",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 244,
"text": "The new product was unveiled on September 24, 2016 and released on November 10, 2016. The glasses were sold through Snapbot, a proprietary vending machine for the smartglasses, which was located near Snap's headquarters in Venice, Los Angeles.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "254664",
"title": "Windshield",
"section": "Section::::Repair of stone-chip and crack damage.:Type.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 24,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 24,
"end_character": 218,
"text": "Circular bullseyes, linear cracks, crack chips, dings, pits and star-shaped breaks can be repaired without removing the glass, eliminating the risk of leaking or bonding problems sometimes associated with replacement.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "35326347",
"title": "Google Glass",
"section": "Section::::Criticism.:Privacy concerns.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 65,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 65,
"end_character": 258,
"text": "There have also been concerns over potential eye pain caused by users new to Glass. These concerns were validated by Google's optometry advisor Dr. Eli Peli of Harvard, though he later partly backtracked due to the controversy which ensued from his remarks.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "59693285",
"title": "Canon FD 55mm f/1.2 AL",
"section": "Section::::Radioactivity.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 210,
"text": "Over time, thorium decay causes F-centers to form in the glass, resulting in an amber discoloration. The discoloration can be repaired by exposure to a source of ultraviolet radiation, such as direct sunlight.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "34845182",
"title": "New Year's glasses",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
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"text": "New Year's glasses are novelty eyeglasses in the numerical shape of the coming year usually worn during New Year's Eve parties. They were invented and patented by Richard Sclafani and Peter Cicero in 1990, although other companies have produced similar versions. New Year's glasses' inspiration and popularity arose from the fact that the two digits in the middle of the year number (9 and 0 from the years 1990-2009) had holes suitable for looking through or mounting lenses into.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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| null |
24o7v7 | why is it that when you're in a plane and the plane is turning sideways, your hair doesn't also gravitate towards the actual ground of earth but keeps gravitating towards the floor of the airplane? | [
{
"answer": "Same reason water stays in a bucket when you swing it over your head. Centrifugal force.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because pilots use banking turns. They bank the plane (making the wings vertical) at the same time as they increase the pitch (raise the nose). If a skilled pilot does both at once, then you won't notice the banking, because your own inertia, pressing against the plane and resisting the acceleration is approximately equal to what you experience under normal gravity. ",
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"answer": "Youve never been in a plane with wings semi vertical. Commercial airliners only turn at 30degree bank. And they yaw very slowly.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "465569",
"title": "Stall turn",
"section": "Section::::Flying technique.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
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"text": "Another problem in this maneuver is that higher lift from the faster moving outside wing will roll the airplane to the left (or to the right). Most pilots find holding forward right (or left) stick necessary throughout the pivot.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "8216292",
"title": "Graveyard spiral",
"section": "Section::::Vestibular aspects.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 23,
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"text": "no rotational acceleration (a turn). If you turn either your aircraft or your head, the canal moves with your head, but the fluid inside does not move because of its inertia. As the canal moves, the hairs inside also move with it and are bent in the opposite direction of the acceleration by the stationary fluid. This hair movement sends a signal to the brain to indicate that the head has turned. The problem starts when you continue turning your aircraft at a constant rate (as in a coordinated turn) for more than 20 seconds.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "940299",
"title": "Ground loop (aviation)",
"section": "Section::::Looping phenomena.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 587,
"text": "If the aircraft heading is different from the aircraft's direction of motion, a sideways force is exerted on the wheels. If this force is in front of the centre of gravity, the resulting moment rotates the aircraft's heading even further from its direction of motion. This increases the force and the process reinforces itself. To avoid a ground loop, the pilot must respond to any turning tendency quickly, while sufficient control authority is available to counteract it. Once the aircraft rotates beyond this point, there is nothing the pilot can do to stop it from rotating further.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "474404",
"title": "High-pressure area",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
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"text": "However, because the planet is rotating underneath the atmosphere, and frictional forces arise as the planetary surface drags some atmosphere with it, the air flow from center to periphery is not direct, but is twisted due to the Coriolis effect, or the merely apparent force that arise when the observer is in a rotating frame of reference. Viewed from above this twist in wind direction is in the same direction as the rotation of the planet.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "7783",
"title": "Coriolis force",
"section": "Section::::Applied to the Earth.:Intuitive explanation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 78,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 78,
"end_character": 548,
"text": "As the Earth turns around its axis, everything attached to it, including the atmosphere, turns with it (imperceptibly to our senses). An object that is moving without being dragged along with the surface rotation or atmosphere such as an object in ballistic flight or an independent air mass within the atmosphere, travels in a straight motion over the turning Earth. From our rotating perspective on the planet, the direction of motion of an object in ballistic flight changes as it moves, bending in the opposite direction to our actual motion. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "8402",
"title": "Diving (sport)",
"section": "Section::::Mechanics of diving.:Twisting.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 136,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 136,
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"text": "An alternative explanation is that the moving arms have precession torque on them which set the body into twisting rotation. Moving the arms back produces opposite torque which stops the twisting rotation.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "18827698",
"title": "Torque effect",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "In a single-propeller plane, the result of the torque effect is a tendency of the plane to want to turn upwards and left in response to the propeller wanting to turn (bank) the plane in the opposite direction of the propeller spin.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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| null |
4opyca | how does nicotine affect a body's dopamine level? | [
{
"answer": "There's really a ton of misinformation about this. \n\nPeople will tell you that nicotine releases dopamine because it's pleasurable, or it's pleasurable because it releases dopamine, but neither of those is very accurate at all.\n\nFirst off, there is no such thing as your \"dopamine level\". Neurotransmitters are not like hormones. Hormones get released into your body's general circulation, and if there's more testosterone (for example) in your system, then testosterone receptors throughout your body will get stimulated more.\n\nBut with neurotransmitters, one group of neurons can be using neurotransmitter X to send a particular message to some other group of neurons, and a different group of neurons (even in the same area) could be using the same neurotransmitter to communicate with some other group of neurons about something completely different.\n\nAs for nicotine:\n\nNicotine blocks nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter, and nicotinic ACh receptors are a subtype of that receptor, which is also present in most of your muscles). \n\nONE of the systems in your brain that uses dopamine, the mesolimbic system, is related to motivation / goal directed behavior (this is often misrepresented as being a \"reward system\" but that's quite wrong). This is often called a dopaminergic system, but that is still misleading, because only a small part of the system is dopaminergic. As with most neural circuits, it's composed of many different groups of neurons that send signals to each other using various neurotransmitters, including glutamate, GABA, dopamine, acetylcholine, and others. \n\nSome parts of the system have nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and nicotine affects these.\n\nELI5:\n\nThere are systems in your brain that help govern goal directed behavior. A small part of one of these systems is dopaminergic, but most of it uses other neurotransmitters, including acetylcholine. Nicotine blocks acetylcholine receptors, changing the behavior of the system.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "38272",
"title": "Nicotine",
"section": "Section::::Pharmacology.:Pharmacodynamics.:Central nervous system.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 59,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Nicotine activates nicotinic receptors (particularly α4β2 nicotinic receptors) on neurons that innervate the ventral tegmental area and within the mesolimbic pathway where it appears to cause the release of dopamine. This nicotine-induced dopamine release occurs at least partially through activation of the cholinergic–dopaminergic reward link in the ventral tegmental area. Nicotine also appears to induce the release of endogenous opioids that activate opioid pathways in the reward system, since naltrexone – an opioid receptor antagonist – blocks nicotine self-administration. These actions are largely responsible for the strongly reinforcing effects of nicotine, which often occur in the absence of euphoria; however, mild euphoria from nicotine use can occur in some individuals. Chronic nicotine use inhibits class I and II histone deacetylases in the striatum, where this effect plays a role in nicotine addiction.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "9126099",
"title": "Nicotine withdrawal",
"section": "Section::::Causes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 801,
"text": "Various causes have been proposed to explain the causes of nicotine withdrawal. Nicotine binds to nicotinic receptors in the brain that, in turn, cause an increase in dopamine. Dopamine is the major chemical that stimulates reward centers in the brain. The brain recruits an opposing force to dampen the effects of nicotine and this causes tolerance (the reduction in the effect of nicotine). The onset of this opposing force and the fact that the brain becomes used to and dependent on nicotine to function normally is known as physical dependence. When nicotine intake is decreased, the brain's opposing force is now unopposed and this causes withdrawal symptoms. It also appears that opiate, serotonergic, glutamic, cannabinoid, and corticotrophin receptors may play a role in nicotine withdrawal.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "12719552",
"title": "Nicotine dependence",
"section": "Section::::Mechanisms.:Biomolecular.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 1659,
"text": "Pre-existing cognitive and mood disorders may influence the development and maintenance of nicotine dependence. Nicotine is a parasympathomimetic stimulant that binds to and activates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain, which subsequently causes the release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine, acetylcholine, serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid, glutamate, endorphins, and several neuropeptides. Repeated exposure to nicotine can cause an increase in the number of nicotinic receptors, which is believed to be a result of receptor desensitization and subsequent receptor upregulation. This upregulation or increase in the number of nicotinic receptors significantly alters the functioning of the brain reward system. With constant use of nicotine, tolerance occurs at least partially as a result of the development of new nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain. After several months of nicotine abstinence, the number of receptors go back to normal. Nicotine also stimulates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the adrenal medulla, resulting in increased levels of adrenaline and beta-endorphin. Its physiological effects stem from the stimulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which are located throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. Chronic nicotinic acetylcholine receptor activation from repeated nicotine exposure can induce strong effects on the brain, including changes in the brain's physiology, that result from the stimulation of regions of the brain associated with reward, pleasure, and anxiety. These complex effects of nicotine on the brain are still not well understood.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "767086",
"title": "Cotinine",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
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"text": "Because cotinine is the main metabolite to nicotine and has been shown to be pharmacologically active, it has been suggested that some of nicotine's effects in the nervous system may be mediated by cotinine and/or complex interactions with nicotine itself.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11996885",
"title": "Electronic cigarette",
"section": "Section::::Health effects.:Addiction and dependence.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 60,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 60,
"end_character": 2880,
"text": "Nicotine is a parasympathomimetic stimulant that binds to and activates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain, which subsequently causes the release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine, acetylcholine, serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid, glutamate, endorphins, and several neuropeptides, including proopiomelanocortin-derived α-MSH and adrenocorticotropic hormone. Corticotropin-releasing factor, Neuropeptide Y, orexins, and norepinephrine are involved in nicotine addiction. Continuous exposure to nicotine can cause an increase in the number of nicotinic receptors, which is believed to be a result of receptor desensitization and subsequent receptor upregulation. Long-term exposure to nicotine can also result in downregulation of glutamate transporter 1. Long-term nicotine exposure upregulates cortical nicotinic receptors, but it also lowers the activity of the nicotinic receptors in the cortical vasodilation region. These effects are not easily understood. With constant use of nicotine, tolerance occurs at least partially as a result of the development of new nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain. After several months of nicotine abstinence, the number of receptors go back to normal. The extent to which alterations in the brain caused by nicotine use are reversible is not fully understood. Nicotine also stimulates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the adrenal medulla, resulting in increased levels of adrenaline and beta-endorphin. Its physiological effects stem from the stimulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which are located throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. The α4β2 nicotinic receptor subtype is the main nicotinic receptor subtype. Nicotine activates brain receptors which produce sedative as well as euphoric effects. Chronic nicotinic acetylcholine receptor activation from repeated nicotine exposure can induce strong effects on the brain, including changes in the brain's physiology, that result from the stimulation of regions of the brain associated with reward, pleasure, and anxiety. These complex effects of nicotine on the brain are still not well understood. Nicotine interferes with the blood-brain barrier function, and so raises the risk of brain edema and neuroinflammation. When nicotine enters the brain, it stimulates the midbrain dopaminergic neurons situated in the ventral tegmental area and pars compacta, among other activities. It induces the release of dopamine in different parts of the brain, such as the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, and hippocampus. Ghrelin-induced dopamine release occurs as a result of the activation of the cholinergic–dopaminergic reward link in the ventral tegmental area, a critical part of the reward areas in the brain related with reinforcement. Ghrelin signaling may affect the reinforcing effects of drug dependence.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "38272",
"title": "Nicotine",
"section": "Section::::Pharmacology.:Pharmacodynamics.:Central nervous system.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 58,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 58,
"end_character": 988,
"text": "By binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain, nicotine elicits its psychoactive effects and increases the levels of several neurotransmitters in various brain structures – acting as a sort of \"volume control.\" Nicotine has a higher affinity for nicotinic receptors in the brain than those in skeletal muscle, though at toxic doses it can induce contractions and respiratory paralysis. Nicotine's selectivity is thought to be due to a particular amino acid difference on these receptor subtypes. Nicotine is unusual in comparison to most drugs, as its profile changes from stimulant to sedative with increasing dosages, a phenomenon known as \"Nesbitt's paradox\" after the doctor who first described it in 1969. At very high doses it dampens neuronal activity. Nicotine induces both behavioral stimulation and anxiety in animals. Research into nicotine's most predominant metabolite, cotinine, suggests that some of nicotine's psychoactive effects are mediated by cotinine.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "743410",
"title": "Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor",
"section": "Section::::Effects.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 18,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 18,
"end_character": 531,
"text": "The activation of receptors by nicotine modifies the state of neurons through two main mechanisms. On one hand, the movement of cations causes a depolarization of the plasma membrane (which results in an excitatory postsynaptic potential in neurons) leading to the activation of voltage-gated ion channels. On the other hand, the entry of calcium acts, either directly or indirectly, on different intracellular cascades. This leads, for example, to the regulation of the activity of some genes or the release of neurotransmitters.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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| null |
uwkog | how are blind people taught to understand the world? how much do they truly understand about their shape and the shape of other things? | [
{
"answer": "Blind people simply can’t see. They will never understand colour, or what it means for things to look beautiful, but they still have their other senses.\n\nDon’t underestimate how good sound is for building up an understanding of the space you are standing in. Blind people can also touch things and easily understand their shape. Without vision you can build up a pretty good idea of the world around you. If you were born blind then you will have learnt naturally how to utilise your other senses to understand the world and would not need to be taught by someone else how to understand it.\n\nMost people who are considered legally blind are not fully blind, they can see to some extent. Of course this is not true for all blind people, but the majority of blind people have some vision. ",
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"answer": "This is called the Molyneux problem in philosophy and you can read up on it here _URL_0_ \n\nThe short answer is that people who are blind from birth or early childhood do not have a visual conception of the world. Those whose sight is restored in later life can not recognise objects by sight alone at first and this is a skill that must be learnt. \n\nThere is a related thought experiment on perceptions of colour called 'Mary's room' _URL_1_ which postulates that no matter how well someone may understand the concept of a sense, they can't actually understand what it is to experience it unless they themselves do so. ",
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"wikipedia_id": "23029465",
"title": "Braille literacy",
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"text": "A sighted child who is reading at a basic level should be able to understand common words and answer simple questions about the information presented. They should also have enough fluency to get through the material in a timely manner. Over the course of a child's education, these foundations are built on to teach higher levels of math, science, and comprehension skills. Children who are blind not only have the education disadvantage of not being able to see: they also miss out on the very fundamental parts of early and advanced education if not provided with the necessary tools.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2243071",
"title": "Kuriakose Elias Chavara",
"section": "Section::::Excerpts.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 85,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 85,
"end_character": 447,
"text": "BULLET::::- \"Just as without eyes one cannot see the material things of the world, so also without knowledge it will be impossible for us to see or understand the reality of this world and the eternity where God dwells in. As those who have no eyes are called “Blind”, so too those who have no learning are to be called “intellectually blind” Hence it is the responsibility of priest to teach the faithful and of parents to teach their children.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "9892",
"title": "Expert",
"section": "Section::::Expertise.:Academic views.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 1165,
"text": "The blind spot metaphor refers to the physiological blind spot in human vision in which perceptions of surroundings and circumstances are strongly impacted by their expectations. Beginning practicing educators tend to overlook the importance of novice levels of prior knowledge and other factors involved in adjusting and adapting pedagogy for learner understanding. This expert blind spot is in part due to an assumption that novices’ cognitive schemata are less elaborate, interconnected, and accessible than experts’ and that their pedagogical reasoning skills are less well developed (Borko & Livingston, 1989: 474). Essential knowledge of subject matter for practicing educators consists of overlapping knowledge domains: subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content matter (Borko, Eisenhart, Brown, Underhill, Jones, & Agard, 1992: 195). Pedagogical content matter consists of an understanding of how to represent certain concepts in ways appropriate to the learner contexts, including abilities and interests. The expert blind spot is a pedagogical phenomenon that is typically overcome through educators’ experience with instructing learners over time.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "886036",
"title": "Ethical intuitionism",
"section": "Section::::Rational intuition versus moral sense.:Moral sense.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 42,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 42,
"end_character": 1187,
"text": "One way to understand the moral sense is to draw an analogy between it and other kinds of senses. Beauty, for example, is something we see in some faces, artworks and landscapes. We can also hear it in some pieces of music. We clearly do not need an independent aesthetic sense faculty to perceive beauty in the world. Our ordinary five senses are quite enough to observe it, though merely observing something beautiful is no guarantee that we can observe its beauty. In the same way, a color-blind person is not necessarily able to perceive the green color of grass although he is capable of vision. Suppose we give a name to this ability to appreciate the beauty in things we see: one might call it the \"aesthetic sense\". This aesthetic sense does not come automatically to all people with perfect vision and hearing, so it is fair to describe it as something extra, something not wholly reducible to vision and hearing. As the aesthetic sense informs us about what is beautiful, we can analogically understand the \"moral sense\" as informing us of what is good. People with a functioning moral sense get a clear impression of wrongness when they see puppies being kicked, for example.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "15559385",
"title": "Tactile discrimination",
"section": "Section::::Applications.:Blindness.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 25,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 25,
"end_character": 2305,
"text": "When a person has become blind, in order to “see” the world, their other senses become heightened. An important sense for the blind is their sense of touch, which becomes more frequently used to help them perceive the world. People that are blind have displayed that their visual cortices become more responsive to auditory and tactile stimulation. Braille allows the blind to be able to use their sense of touch to feel the roughness, and distance of various patterns to be used as a form of language. Within the brain, the activation of the occipital cortex is functionally relevant for tactile braille reading, as well as the somatosensory cortex. These various parts of the brain function in their own way, in which they each contribute to the effectiveness of how braille is read by the blind. People that are blind also rely heavily on Tactile Gnosis, Spatial discrimination, Graphesthesia, and Two-point discrimination. Essentially, the occipital cortex allows one to effectively make judgements on the distance of braille patterns, which is related to spatial discrimination. Meanwhile, the somatosensory cortex allows one to effectively make judgements on the roughness of braille patterns, which is related to two-point discrimination. The various visual areas in the brain are very essential for a blind person to read braille, just as much as it is for a person that has sight. Essentially, whether one is blind or not, the perception of objects that involves tactile discrimination is not impaired if one cannot see. When comparing people that are blind to people that have sight, the amount of activity within the their somatosensory and visual areas of the brain do differ. The activity in the somatosensory and visual areas are not as high in tactile gnosis for people that are not blind, and are more-so active for more visual related stimuli that does not involve touch. Nonetheless, there is a difference in these various areas within the brain when comparing the blind to the sighted, which is that shape discrimination causes a difference in brain activity, as well as tactile gnosis. The visual cortices of blind individuals are active during various vision related tasks including tactile discrimination, and the function of the cortices resemble the activity of adults with sight.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "27667",
"title": "Space",
"section": "Section::::In psychology.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 51,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 51,
"end_character": 262,
"text": "The understanding of three-dimensional space in humans is thought to be learned during infancy using unconscious inference, and is closely related to hand-eye coordination. The visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions is called depth perception.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2158298",
"title": "Visual impairment",
"section": "Section::::Treatment.:Communication.:Surroundings.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 173,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 173,
"end_character": 294,
"text": "Individuals with a visual disability not only have to find ways to communicate effectively with the people around them, but their environment as well. The blind or visually impaired rely largely on their other senses such as hearing, touch, and smell in order to understand their surroundings.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
2a2iek | If a duke in medieval England, France, or Germany wanted his second son to inherit his lands and titles, would he have any way of disinheriting his oldest son? | [
{
"answer": "In England, it would depend on a couple of things.\n\nIf the real property were held in fee tail (Entailed) a person would need the agreement of the heir to break the fee tail.\n\nIf a tail could not be broken, the ancestor/father could leave all of his personal property,money or unentailed real property any way that he chose. Theoretically an heir could inherit a parcel of land/estate and have no financial means to keep it up.\n\nAn heir could voluntarily abjure a title. _URL_1_.\n\nI am not aware of a means to force an heir out unless the parent filed a writ to have him declared a bastard. Until the 20th century bastards could not inherit a title or take from a parent who died intestate.\n\nOn teh Continent, in what we call France and some of teh German principalities, Sa;ic Law governed civil law issues including inheritance.\n\nI am less familiar with Salic Law provisions\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4982339",
"title": "Monaco succession crisis of 1918",
"section": "Section::::Dynastic dilemma.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 852,
"text": "The duke, a descendant through a morganatic marriage of the royal family of Württemberg, was the elder son of Albert's aunt, Princess Florestine of Monaco. Although he was ineligible to inherit the crown of his patrilineal ancestors in Germany, given the line of succession to the Monegasque throne at that time, there was every likelihood that the principality would pass by lawful inheritance into Wilhelm's \"German hands\" upon the death of Prince Louis. However, given the bitter relations between France and Germany at that time – a socio-political legacy of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 and then of World War I – France deemed it unacceptable for a country over which it had exercised \"de facto\" or \"de jure\" hegemony, intermittently since the 17th century and consistently for half a century, to fall into the hands of a German aristocrat.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "46743",
"title": "Heidelberg",
"section": "Section::::History.:Modern history.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 29,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 29,
"end_character": 1372,
"text": "In 1648, at the end of the war, Frederick V's son Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine, was able to recover his titles and lands. To strengthen his dynasty, Charles I Louis arranged the marriage of his daughter Liselotte to Philip I, Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIV, king of France. In 1685, after the death of Charles Louis' son, Elector Charles II, Louis XIV laid claim to his sister-in-law's inheritance. The Germans rejected the claim, in part because of religious differences between local Protestants and the French Catholics, as the Protestant Reformation had divided the peoples of Europe. The War of the Grand Alliance ensued. In 1689, French troops took the town and castle, bringing nearly total destruction to the area in 1693. As a result of the destruction due to repeated French invasions related to the War of the Palatinate Succession coupled with severe winters, thousands of Protestant German Palatines emigrated from the lower Palatinate in the early 18th century. They fled to other European cities and especially to London (where the refugees were called \"the poor Palatines\"). In sympathy for the Protestants, in 1709–1710, Queen Anne's government arranged transport for nearly 6,000 Palatines to New York. Others were transported to Pennsylvania, and to South Carolina. They worked their passage and later settled in the English colonies there.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "54569760",
"title": "Lords of Corswarem",
"section": "Section::::List.:Dukes of Corswarem-Looz.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 35,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 35,
"end_character": 352,
"text": "The ducal line is not had the possibility to continue straight from father to son, after the death of the 3rd Duke, another line had to be recognised by the crown. The descendants of François II continued the line of dukes. In the 17th century the dukes had large connection in the Holy Roman Empire, and no difficulties to find a bride of good house.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5548384",
"title": "William III, Duke of Bavaria",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 206,
"text": "William III (1375 in Munich – 12 September 1435) (German: \"Wilhelm III., Herzog von Bayern\"), was Duke of Bavaria-Munich (1397–1435), together and in concord with his older brother Ernest, Duke of Bavaria.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "28377858",
"title": "Duke of Saint-Simon",
"section": "Section::::List of Dukes of Saint-Simon, 1630—1755.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 299,
"text": "The second duke's two sons both predeceased him, making the French dukedom extinct in 1755. However, the second duke had been given a Spanish dukedom when he was ambassador there, which could be inherited through the female line, and descendants continued to use this title until the 19th century. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1235539",
"title": "Wilhelm Karl, Duke of Urach",
"section": "Section::::Bypassed for the throne of Württemberg.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 356,
"text": "In 1921 the former king Wilhelm II of Württemberg died, without leaving a male heir. While the 2nd duke of Urach was technically the senior male descendant from the Württemberg royal family, it had already been decided that the succession would pass to his cousin Duke Albrecht because of the morganatic marriage of the parents of the first duke of Urach.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4012739",
"title": "Ernest I, Duke of Swabia",
"section": "Section::::Life and family.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 236,
"text": "In 1012 Henry II, King of Germany, gave the Duchy of Swabia to Ernest following the death of its childless ruler Hermann III. In order to further legitimatize his rule as duke, he married Gisela of Swabia, the eldest sister of Hermann.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
68gu7m | why does coffee help a hangover? | [
{
"answer": "Hangovers, in ELI5 terms, are a specific case of dehydration. Caffeine is a diuretic, meaning it makes you pee more, which doesn't help the dehydration causing you to feel like crap.\n\nHowever, hangovers leave you feeling sluggish, tired and achey. Caffeine is a stimulant, which helps to perk your body up, helping you overcome several of the \"worn down\" symptoms of the hangover.\n\nCaffeine also makes veins constrict a bit, which slows blood flow especially in the brain, which means it can do a little to help with headaches.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "17818143",
"title": "Coffee enema",
"section": "Section::::Effects and dangers.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 323,
"text": "Coffee enemas can cause serious side effects (some common to other types of enemas), including infections, sepsis, severe electrolyte imbalance, colitis, proctocolitis, salmonella, brain abscess, and heart failure. If the coffee is inserted too quickly or is too hot, it could cause internal burning or rectal perforation.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "604727",
"title": "Coffee",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 621,
"text": "Coffee is darkly colored, bitter, slightly acidic and has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is one of the most popular drinks in the world, and it can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways (e.g., espresso, French press, caffè latte). It is usually served hot, although iced coffee is a popular alternative. Clinical studies indicate that moderate coffee consumption is benign or mildly beneficial in healthy adults, with continuing research on whether long-term consumption lowers the risk of some diseases, although those long-term studies are of generally poor quality.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "7984",
"title": "Drink",
"section": "Section::::Types of drink.:Hot drinks.:Coffee.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 70,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 70,
"end_character": 363,
"text": "Coffee is slightly acidic (pH 5.0–5.1) and can have a stimulating effect on humans because of its caffeine content. It is one of the most popular drinks in the world. It can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. The effect of coffee on human health has been a subject of many studies; however, results have varied in terms of coffee's relative benefit.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2668748",
"title": "Abby Sciuto",
"section": "Section::::Characterization.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 898,
"text": "Like Gibbs, Abby enjoys caffeine, primarily in the form of large cups of a fictional drink called \"Caf-Pow\". At times, when she is worried about the caffeine interfering with her sleep, she drinks \"No-Caf-Pow\" instead. (According to Perrette, the cups were originally filled with Hawaiian Punch, but when she stopped eating and drinking refined sugar, unsweetened cranberry juice was used in its place.) When changing the artwork in her lab during \"Hung Out to Dry\", she states that she has a \"Chagall feeling\", a reference to Marc Chagall, a Jewish Belarusian artist whose main works came from fantasy and dreams. Her favorite term for something out of the ordinary is \"hinky\". It is also shown that she enjoys attending concerts, but her failure to wear earplugs at one of them left her with temporary hearing loss the next day, forcing her to ask DiNozzo for help analyzing some audio evidence.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "28935529",
"title": "Coffee production in Papua New Guinea",
"section": "Section::::Product.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 24,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 24,
"end_character": 311,
"text": "The coffee is naturally produced given that synthetic fertilisers and pesticides are too expensive and unobtainable which results in coffee with naturally low levels of caffeine and acidity. Papua New Guinean coffee is said to have medium body, low to medium acidity, a syrupy mouthfeel and often fruity notes.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "83877",
"title": "Enema",
"section": "Section::::Society and culture.:Alternative medicine.:Dangerous.:Coffee enemas.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 114,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 114,
"end_character": 298,
"text": "Coffee enemas can cause numerous side effects, including infections, sepsis (including campylobacter sepsis), severe electrolyte imbalance, colitis, polymicrobial enteric sepsis, proctocolitis, salmonella, brain abscess, and heart failure, and deaths related to coffee enemas have been documented.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "66391",
"title": "Stimulant",
"section": "Section::::Notable stimulants.:Caffeine.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 30,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 30,
"end_character": 1260,
"text": "Coffee consumption is associated with a lower overall risk of cancer. This is primarily due to a decrease in the risks of hepatocellular and endometrial cancer, but it may also have a modest effect on colorectal cancer. There does not appear to be a significant protective effect against other types of cancers, and heavy coffee consumption may increase the risk of bladder cancer. A protective effect of caffeine against Alzheimer's disease is possible, but the evidence is inconclusive. Moderate coffee consumption may decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it may somewhat reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Drinking four or more cups of coffee per day does not affect the risk of hypertension compared to drinking little or no coffee. However those who drink 1–3 cups per day may be at a slightly increased risk. Caffeine increases intraocular pressure in those with glaucoma but does not appear to affect normal individuals. It may protect people from liver cirrhosis. There is no evidence that coffee stunts a child's growth. Caffeine may increase the effectiveness of some medications including ones used to treat headaches. Caffeine may lessen the severity of acute mountain sickness if taken a few hours prior to attaining a high altitude.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
25ml1w | why do diseases only do bad things to us? why are there no diseases/viruses that are actually good for us? | [
{
"answer": "There are though. A lot of bacteria helps you digest stuff. Also, I'm in total belief that a lot of non-microbial diseases are actually failed attempts at evolution...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are no good diseases because the definition of the word disease is typically something regarded as abnormal and harmful.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well, diseases are generally defined as anything which impairs normal functioning. So a \"positive disease\" doesn't make any sense. \n\nThere are beneficial bacteria though. There are very few cases of viruses being directly beneficial though, although I just read about a case where they are helpful for wasps who use them to as a means to defend larva against the immune system of the caterpillar they are using as a walking food source. Not sure if that's really \"helpful\". It's obviously harmful to the caterpillar, but it repopulates within the wasp.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well by definition, a disease is something that has a negative impact on you.\n\nAnyways, if there was some big good quality that could be added to our bodies just with the introduction of a few bacteria/viruses, evolution probably would've already \"figured it out\". In fact, biology seems to be full of examples of organisms basically incorporating other creatures into their larger whole. \n\nSome biologists believe that mitochondria (which are a key component in our cells, providing much of the chemical energy that keeps us alive) originally evolved as a separate form of bacteria, before being \"hijacked\" by larger cells and becoming an integral part of much of life for billions of years. \n\n",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "If i remember well, Richard Dawkins said something \"a bit related\" in \"The Selfish Gene\".\nSnails can be parasited by something that causes their shell to be more resistant. You would think that it's a good thing, but if it were, then natural selection would have produced a pressure on snails to develop such a solid shell without requiring the parasite.\nIn fact, while the shell is more solid, it's also heavier, and so the parasite does more harm than good to its host: the snail cannot reproduce as much as before. But the parasite doesn't care, because its way to reproduce is totally unrelated to the way the snail reproduces, so they have different, incompatible objectives.\nIf, to reproduce, the parasite needed that the snail reproduces as well, they would become more and more dependent from each other, to the point that they would form a single entity.\n",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "Yes, there are good diseases. For instance, retroviruses and bornaviruses account for 8-9% of the human genetic code, and the same is true for most mammals and birds. One pretty useful thing retroviruses help with is the formation of the placenta and differentiation early in fetal development. These genes have been proven to come from multiple strains of human endogenous retrovirus (herv), and suppressing them slows and hinders development and the ability to latch onto the uterine wall. Just one example of a beneficial virus, and 8-9% of our DNA comes from them.\n\nThere are a surprising number of retrovirus genes that protect and aid the development of the fetus. It is kinda strange, but it fascinates me. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The whole principle of vaccination was discovered because Edward Jenner investigated the idea that a relatively benign illness called cowpox made a person immune to smallpox (which is often deadly). Seems pretty beneficial to me.\n\nThe microorganisms associated with disease don't particularly have your interests at heart so that's why they'll often cause disease. As people have mentioned in other posts there are plenty of microorganisms in the human body that do beneficial things (when your interests and the interests of a microorganism happen to align), in some animals there are separate microorganisms that do things that are downright essential, in these cases we don't call the effect these things have on the body \"diseases\". If you're interested in that kind of stuff there was a [TED talk](_URL_0_) about the potential medical relevance of our natural fauna.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You shouldn't have used the word \"disease\", you are only getting bad answers :(",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A *'disease that is good for us'* would probably just be called a *'symbiosis.'*\n\nThe most straightforward example is your gut flora, where the 'infection' helps you digest your food.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are. We just don't call them diseases.\n\nBiologically, there's little difference between the bacteria that causes illness and the bacteria that works in your gut to help digest food or on your skin to help remove impurities. The difference is that if a bacteria isn't causing any harm to the body (at least, on an evolutionary timescale), the body (generally) won't fight it off. That means the bacteria can stick around, grow, and populate. The bacteria needs a food source of its own, so it starts eating something in the body that the body has no use for. This may then play a beneficial function for the body.\n\nOr, put more simply: digestion is a \"disease\" caused by bacteria.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Diseases are by definition bad.\n\nIf you're talking about bacteria/microbes doing good things, there are tonnes. Only 1/10 of the cells in your body are human, the rest are bacteria in different forms. They keep you alive and functioning. \n\nNot to mention, scientists are now using some diseases to battle other diseases. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Best example would be Escherichia Coli, who, while a disease if they get into your blood or your stomach, are very important to have in your large intestine. _URL_0_\n\nThey basically just chill there, eat leftovers, build vitamins for you and compete for resources with harmful other bacteria, which helps to keep them out.\n\nSo no superpowers, just a significantly more healthy digestion, brought about by something that can also cause a disease.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's a news article going around right now about doctors who've cured a woman's cancer with a high dose of the measles virus: _URL_0_\n\nOtherwise, I would wager most people who have mental abnormalities or forms of autism that confer benefits such as remarkable memory or mathematics skill wouldn't be in a rush to cure their \"disease.\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nStraight from /r/news",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The toxoplasma gondii parasite makes women more randy. I suppose one could argue that's a good thing?\n\n_URL_0_\n\nIt also increases the likelihood of suicide, so that's kinda not so good...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sickle cell (which sucks) helps prevent malaria. \n\nPlease understand this is a vague answer and there is a lot involved. The trait, not the disease...\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Actually there are a lot of diseases that do confer benefits, read the book \"Survival of the Sickest\".\n\nFor example, Hemacromatosis (Basically, your body produces way too much iron) is good protection against the plague.\n\nSickle Cell Anemia protects against malaria.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Some mental disorders can be beneficial in the right context, and it's not hard to see the benefits rise to the level of evolutionary forces. People who have Bipolar Disorder can be brilliant, fearless, and unstoppable when they are on the upswing. People who are [hypomanic can be seen as \"the life of the party.\"](_URL_0_) Depression, whether by itself or as part of bipolar disorder, can be crippling, of course, but there is a bleak realism to mild depression that serves as an antidote to over-optimistic or unrealistic plans.\n\nThis shouldn't be seen as a Just So story, however. Bipolar Disorder is likely also prevalent in humans because people in manic moods can sometimes be hypersexual, heedless of risk. That's going to leave some babies behind. \n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Gut bacteria. Also, disease by definition means abnormal and almost always means bad. Good health and proper bodily function is considered normal, so the word choice of your question is flawed.\n\nBut ya, Gut Bacteria is good, even if it might in different circumstances or for different organisms become a disease. Also, all of the smart genetic stuff the top poster said.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that getting hookworms could possibly protect against severe allergies. Radiolab had an intersesting show on it: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "First thing that came to mind was Botulism and Botox. I wouldn't get it, but I guess some people like it. \n\nSecond thing was the bacteria present in yogurt and other food that help digestion.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are viruses that do good stuff!!!\n\nThere are non pathogenic viruses used in gene therapy as vectors. They enter and replicate in certain body cells in order to inhibit/excite certain proteins for positive health benefits.\n\nIn other words, the bad stuff the virus done is turned off but they can still trigger your body do good stuff like regrow important cells and tissues. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You could also consider the bacteria that live in your intestines a disease, but without them you couldn't properly digest your food.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Dis-ease. The word itself means something that makes you feel bad. If you felt bad, you'd study it to find a way to not get it again. If it made you feel good you wouldn't call it dis-ease, you'd just think you were having a really good day.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is a mutation in the cd4 receptor of a person's cells that confers HIV resistance. It's not a disease but it's definitely a mutation and not 'normal'\n\nAlso sickle cell anaemia was pretty much the standard example of a disease that could benefit humans.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I have \"Gilbert's Syndrome\" which means that my Kidneys don't process Bilirubin properly. This means A) when I get sick my eyes turn yellow (jaundice) and B) I have lower chance of getting certain kinds of Heart disease. \n\n\ntl;dr I can change colors and am resistant to one of the leading killers of American males.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well your mitochondria and chloroplasts in plants are two pretty food examples of good diseases. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nCheck the above link out, grabbed from trending post on Reddit.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I think most people are doing a good job of explaining how there are beneficial viruses and bacteria that are integral to human survival. \n\nBut I think they're missing the heart of OP's question, which is: why aren't there microbes or viruses that give us extraordinary (as in, not subtle) advantages over other people if we catch them. \n\nAs far as the why, I think it's just because the genetic lottery hasn't produced anything like this yet. You've gotta remember, the fitness of the virus or microbe has to benefit before it benefits the host. And second, if such a disease did pop up, the entire population would flock to infected people to get it themselves. \n\n**Interesting Note**: Anyone immune to said anti-disease would, interestingly in this case, be at a DISadvantage and they'd be considered less fit, evolution-wise, if this meant they couldn't have as many thriving offspring.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Alright kid listen up. Viruses are usually bad. It's not their fault. They are only bad because the sole purpose for them to exist is to make more of themselves. To do that, they need to steal the stuff in your body to do it, also known as your bodies cells. They take really bad care of your stuff(your cells) and they use it until they break it without paying you back. When they get out of control, they will break all your stuff and make you sick or kill you, although sometimes, they don't really hurt your stuff very much at all, but your body gets so angry that the viruses are using your stuff, it will go on a rampage trying to punish the viruses which will cause much more damage to your stuff then if the virus just was allowed to do its thing.\n\nOne last thing, we also have problems with bacteria and other microorganisms trying to eat our cells, or trying to steal our food, or trying to live inside of us without an invitation. Bacteria cells are very small, compared to a red blood cell, a bacteria is like a person standing in a football field. Viruses are even smaller, compared to a bacteria, a virus is like a person standing between TWO football fields. The best part is that viruses come in all varieties, and they like to steal or highjack the stuff from bacteria or other microorganisms just as much as they like to steal your stuff too. They all look the same to a virus when your that small.\n\nIn the future, we may be able to specifically train viruses to attack only specific bacteria or other harmful microorganisms or even cancer cells that are making us sick. Once they are done, and the harmful organism/cancer is dead, they will die off as well, leaving us alone to get well again.\n\n\nThe end.\n\nFor more information, they did a really good podcast episode of This Week in Virology on this subject, called \"Viruses that make you better.\" \nCheck it out here:\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I was just reading about a woman infested with cancer that was miraculously saved by a virus infusion:\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Gastro-enteritis is good for my weight loss.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are plenty of conditions which result from your body simply fighting off that which is foreign, wherein the foreign agent is not itself directly harmful. Your immune system attacks that which it doesn't recognize as being part of you. The flu doesn't make you sweat; your body does that while trying to combat the virus. In something so fine-tuned and perfectly balanced as the human body, with all of its systems working in more or less harmonious accord despite decades of what amounts to the average person's complete disregard of their health, a sudden and unexpected change is more likely to produce negative effects than positive ones. Our bodies have evolved to fend off change as a result.\n\nThere are diseases which manifest certain positive side effects, as well as disease \"combos\" which do likewise. A brain tumor in the right place can result in heightened moods and enhanced creativity, for instance. That being said, they're still likely to result in your death, your disability... at the very least, your temporary discomfort.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I have Thalassemia which means my red blood cells are smaller than normal, but with that I am immune to Malaria, so I got that going for me, which is nice",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We constantly ingest thousands, maybe millions of types of bacteriophages that infect bacteria within us. Some are lytic, others lysogenic, but one way or another, these viruses not only change the genome of the bacterial species (for instance, the botulinum toxin is encoded by a specific gene that was provided by an ancient bacteriophage.\nAs mentioned elsewhere in this thread, top comment from SharktoothTony, acknowledges the presence of viruses that we've managed to notice clinically and the many more than have accidentally contributed to our coding genome.\nAlso check out r/science! Measles virus just was rewired to kill multiple myeloma! Totally cool, and almost identical to the plot of I am Legend...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Some people have good examples of some instances that viruses and bacteria that can be helpful, but I feel like some are missing the point of your question a little bit.\n\nI took it to mean \"Why don't I ever get infected by something and feel better in some way (instead of getting sick)?\"\n\nAll pathogens are, in some way, using your body's resources. Viruses exploit your cellular machinery to make new virions. That takes energy, DNA base pairs, amino acids, and other resources that your cell needs to survive. The majority of viruses need to burst the cell on the way out, as well. \n\nAt best, the effect will be minimal, but sometimes it can be life threatening. HIV, for example kills T cells, which leave you immunocompromised. \n\nI have been taught that newer, deadlier viruses are that way because they are more poorly adapted to humans (such as swine flu, or any other virus that has recently made the jump to human hosts). A virus does not \"want\" to kill you immediately, because then you will not be able to spread it for very long. The better adapted viruses will keep you infected for quite a long time (without being cleared or killing you) so you are releasing a ton of infections particles.\n\nThat was a bit of a tangent, but long story short. Any pathogen will need to grow and exploit the resources some part of your body needs. A pathogen is a parasite, so the vast majority will hurt you and it is a rare case for it to do more good than harm.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you think of bacteria that causes disease... there's lots of good bacteria in our stomachs and women's genitals.\n ^^^What!? ^^^It's ^^^true!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are tons of bacteria that live in your body that you actually would die without. Thats why antibiotics can really screw you up by killing them off. There's even a theory that the power generating mitochondria in your own cells started out as an independent bacterial organism. There's lots of good-guy microbes, we just take them for granted.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If they are good for us, they wouldn't be diseases, would they. Or put another way. Look in any person's gastrointestinal tract, and it's full of zillions of microbes, including multiple flavors of e-coli that help digest food. Without intestinal flora, we would die.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is whole sickle cell anemia and malaria deal. The malaria parasite infects healthy red blood cells. Sickle cell anemia makes sickle shaped cells. Think crescent moon vs. full moon. \nMalaria is deadly and so is sickle cell anemia. But nature has done something awesome. If someone only possesses one part of the sickle cell anemia code, only some of their cells are affected. Malaria cannot infect these cells. These people stay alive because the SCA won't kill them and the malaria parasite cannot infect there. So, bam, beneficial disease!\nHighly prevalent in Africa. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Mitochondria in all of your cells is hypothesized to have originally been bacteria that lived inside eukaryotic cells and carried out functions that the eukaryote couldn't.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Herpes virus has been know to attack cancer",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You know what? This is a great question. Why don't we have any temporary diseases or symptoms that turn us better than normal? Just imagine the possibilities.\n\n\"I can't come to work today.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\n\"I've got one of those 24 Hour bouts of super strength. So I'm going to go fight some crime.\"\n\n\"Okay, get normal soon.\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I like everybody giving you discussion on the things viruses and bacteria do that are good for us, but the answer is simpler than that. The term \"disease\" implies \"dis-ease\". It's something that will affect your daily life negatively. All these viruses that are being turned into cures, vaccines, treatments, etc. are no longer diseases.\n\nIt just comes down to terminology, really.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Some diseases like Mumps actually protect us from specific Cancers, there are also observations that after Measles a child's artistic ability would leap forward. These diseases are doing more than we realize.\n\nThe immune system is linked to the nervous system and the brain, so if our immune system is improved by fighting off a disease naturally then it also helps our body in other ways that are less obvious.\n\n**Benefits of Measles (Lancet)**\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are some infections that have positive benefits on the body. For example, oncolytic viruses. These viruses help our body find and destroy potentially malignant tumors.Oncolytic viruses use overexpressed surface antigens on tumor cells as receptors for endocytosis. Once inside the cell, these viruses elicit an immune response. Since tumors are quite effective at evading the immune system, the viral infection is actually quite benficial.\nCool concept if you ask me",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The bacteria and viruses that do good things for us are permanently incorporated into our systems. Our bodies keep the things that make us stronger. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I read that sickle cell anemia come with resistance to malaria?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you're heterozygous for sickle cell anemia you have a much lower chance of getting malaria\n\nIt's know as heterozygous advantage",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are plenty of examples of viruses and prokaryotes doing good things for us eukaryotes. For example, there is evidence to suggest that mitochondria and chloroplasts were once free-living prokaryotes adopted by our cells as symbionts. Going from getting our ATP from substrate level phosphorylation alone to achieving oxidative phosphorylation may well have seemed like a superpower in its day, to say nothing of the acquisition of autotrophy.\n\nThere is also a newer school of thought known as the Hologenome Theory of evolution. Put forth by Zilber-Rosenberg et al some years ago, it holds that the \"holobiont\" (an organism and its associated microbes) is the unit of selection in evolution, not the organism alone. For example, two evenly matched termites have different gut flora, one that breaks down cellulose better. Who will survive to reproduction? Or, take amphibians for example. They are being decimated worldwide by the pathogenic chytrid fungus, but some happen to have \"good\" cutaneous microbes that inhibit the fungus on the animal's skin before it can cause disease. These bacteria are species that happen to be picked up in the animal's environment, and the \"power\" they confer is simply the ability to not die. In these cases, the \"good\" done for the organism by bacteria would simply be seen as a competitive advantage on an evolutionary timescale. \n\nSo, some bacteria may have given us (meaning eukaryotes) oxidative phosphorylation, photosynthesis, and some may have conferred various evolutionary advantages upon us as symbionts. But what about viruses? There has been some indication that large chunks of our DNA may be viral in origin, and among bacteria, research has shown the temperate bacteriophages may inadvertently transfer genes between hosts (for example, antibiotic resistance). So there's good evidence out there that viruses have moved DNA around between organisms, sometimes to the organism's gain. \n\nSo overall, the benefits conferred upon eukaryotes by prokaryotes and viruses are real, but are often subtle and realized over an evolutionary timescale. The sort of cellular restructuring and morphological changes needed for a virus to confer \"super strength\" (I say virus because that could only be achieved - in wildly speculative theory - through some sort of nucleic acid introduction) would be so dramatic as to be wholly implausible. \n\nSo, \"bad\" microbes cause \"disease\" and \"good\" microbes simply confer evolutionary advantages. Your \"superpower\" is simply an improved cellular process (oxidative phosphorylation) or the ability to survive and fight another day. It's not as awesome as \"coming down with a case of super strength\", as stated below, but next time you have to move quickly to escape something that means you harm, I bet you'll be glad that you're not relying solely on substrate-level phosphorylation to get your ATP.\n\nTL;DR: Bacteria and viruses can help eukaryotes, but the benefits are often subtle and realized over the evolutionary timescale.\n\nDisclaimer: I don't have access to go through all my PDFs and get sources for all the theories/studies I referenced right now. If anyone wants further reading or citations for any point above, ask for it in the comments and I'll get to it later. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Short answer could be found on the front page just now: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Both [Mitochondria and Cholorplasts](_URL_0_) are thought to be bacteria who originally tried to infect the cell, and instead gained resources from the cell, lost their flagella and traded resources for energy. (I'm not sure if that's the exact theory but that's what I remember from the top of my head.) Also, to back this up, both of these structures have their own DNA.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I've always been convinced viruses are responsible for transmitting beneficial mutations between species. Totally explains the eye-thing.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There ARE good bacteria. Since they are good, they are not called diseases.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nThis link was literally underneath this question on the front page....\n\nAlso a lot of diseases do provide benefits. For instance Sickle Cell Anemia provides a level of immunity against malaria.\n\nYou can find with a lot of virus etc that whilst the general effects on a person might not be great there is something they DO protect of fight off for us.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is a spider (Brazilian wandering spider) that will give you a prolonged erection if it bites you, I am pretty sure this would be classified as good.\nSource: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If it was beneficial, it wouldn't be a disease.\n\nYour body is however, swarming with bacteria that are good for you. Staph lives on your skin, Strep lives in your throat. E. Coli lives in your gut, and without it you wouldn't be able to get vitamin K.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are. We have billions of bacteria in our gut that help us digest food. Without them, everyone would shit...well, like I do... :(\n\nDon't laugh at me, I have colitis.\n\nOk you can laugh.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sickle-cell anemia makes you immune to malaria. Does that count?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's called a disease because it puts you at the opposite of ease. IF ti helped, it'd be named something else :P",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "So this was also on the front page: _URL_0_\n\nLooks like someone already posted it but this is reddit so, I reposted it for you.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Over 80% of bacteria are helpful, and/or indifferent, to the human body. E. coli is one of them, without which the digestive system would not be able to function. Its just that everyone has his/her own strain of E.Coli, which is completely toxic to any other person.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sickle cell anemia protects against malaria.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[Eero Mäntyranta](_URL_0_) was a Finnish skier who won multiple Olympic Gold medals. Per Wikipedia:\n\n > Mäntyranta had primary familial and congenital polycythemia (PFCP) causing an increase in red blood cell mass and hemoglobin due to a mutation in the erythropoietin receptor (EPOR) gene, which was identified following a DNA study done on over 200 members of his family, as reported in 1993. **This condition results in an increase of up to 50% in the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, a large advantage when participating in endurance events.**",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The word literally means 'to make more difficult'. Something that did us good would not be a dis-ease. That's why.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sickle cell anemia will [protect](_URL_0_) you from malaria.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This has probably been mentioned but, back in the day, mitochondria...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Reminds me of a Red Dwarf episode where a luck virus helps the crew get out of a tricky situation. \n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We are colonized with millions of bacteria and viruses that help maintain our health. We don't call them diseases because a disease is specifically defined as something harmful. I've worked in a micro lab and when we culture a sample - we are looking for too much of one thing indicating it has taken over or something that shouldn't be there at all. If we find all kinds of bugs - they're probably good for you. A gigantic simplification but generally correct",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Another lens might be this: the word itself essentially means \"lack of ease\".\n\nWhen our bodies are colonized by bacteria or viruses that cause problems, we call it a disease.\n\nBut our bodies are also colonized by bacteria and viruses that have a neutral or positive effect - it's just that in that case, we don't call it a disease.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I **highly** recommend the book Survival of the Sickest: Why We Need Disease, by Sharon Moalem. In a very easy to understand manner, it covers why certain diseases we current dislike, served a very important role in keeping us alive in past human-history. A very good read.\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In Africa Sickle-Cell Anemia allows them to be completely immune to the effects of Malaria",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Diseases do benefit you in that they've killed off millions of people before you that were weak, but the strong have survived. You are an offspring of those strong survivors and can now pass on those genes, until a disease takes you out and then those genes will slowly fade away by natural selection. You are a stronger and healthier person because of this process. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A virus works by hijacking the moral, healthy cells of your body and using them as hosts to reproduce itself. It's sort of how the face hugger aliens work. The reason there are no good viruses is because of this fact. Taking normal, healthy cells and destroying them en masse is never a good thing. \n\nThe reason there are no good diseases is because the very definition of a disease (not at ease) is that it is something which negatively affects your quality of life. \n\nLots of people are pointing out that there are beneficial bacteria, which is absolutely true. We have evolved symbiotic relationships with thousands of species of bacteria to provide us with proper digestion among other things. However, bacteria are not viruses. They do not invade the cells of your body to reproduce and they more or less function independently of you. Some bacteria cause disease, but through a different mechanism than viruses. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Your GI tract is actually colonized with tons of bacteria-- in fact, there are about 10 times the number of bacteria in your body than cells, that play a vital part in your day to day functioning. \n\n\"Disease\" is caused by something that throws off your body's homeostasis, which is why you get symptoms (your body doesn't like any type of change), and diseases by definition change it. A good example is mood-- on one side, an imbalance can cause you to have a severe depression with low amounts of dopamine. But on the flip side, if you have overactivity, you'll get mania-- which is an elevated mood (so people usually feel good) but has all sorts of bad other effects, like psychotic behavior, racing thoughts, and many are unable to control themselves. If you think of disease in the \"imbalance\" way, it's a much better way to answer your question. \n\n\n\n_URL_0_ ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Back when Small Pox was killing hundreds of thousands a year mysteriously some milk maids were untouched. They had contracted Cow Pox from milking infected cows this caused them to have small blisters on their hands after being infected but additionally stimulated an immune response giving them immunity to the related Small Pox Virus both a type of herpes. So contracting this relatively minor ailment conferred protection against one of the most deadly diseases in the history of man. These observations led Edward Jenner to conduct experiments with cow pox and allow him to create the first man made vaccine. So you could say Cow Pox was the naturally occurring vaccine disease that inspired all the vaccines we have today which have saved innumerable lives. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is one that you have a huge, raging infection of right now.\n\nIt's called E Coli. If you cure your E Coli you won't be able to digest food properly until it regrows.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Most of your vitamin K comes from the bacteria in your gut. Since newborns aren't colonized with the bacteria of the world yet, we give them a vitamin K shot at birth. Usually they just need the one, after that, the bacteria will move into place and start helping out. We do this because vitamin K helps with blood clotting; without which there is a tendency for \"hemorrhagic disease of the newborn\", i.e. the babies randomly just bleed to death. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are! I am currently reading \"Survival of the Sickest\" which takes a look at genetic diseases and how they can be so prevalent if they have the potential to kill us. It seems that some genetic diseases give the person with it the ability to survive immediate dangers with the trade off being that the disease could kill you later in life. Hemochromatosis for example is a disease where iron builds up in the body and causes organ failure. One in three or four people of Western European ancestry have a copy of the gene that causes this disease. The reason it's so prevalent? During 300 years or so, starting in 1347 the bubonic plague killed approximately 25 million people in Europe. Those people who had hemochromatosis were more resistant to the disease, and since they weren't dying of plague they were able to reproduce and pass on the mutation. A disease that may kill you in middle age, but keeps you from having your lymph nodes explode in bubonic nastiness sounds like a pretty great disease to me!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Tl;DR we're not even *us.* We're just a bunch of shit that tried to *move into us* and started working together, and functions pretty well with our infrastructure. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is an interesting theory in Matt Ridley's book 'Genome - The Autobiography of a Species' that people with the genes (as many as 15) that 'cause' asthma would have been protected from internal parasites in the rural stone age because genes linked to asthma would produce histamines that flushed harmful parasites from the body. \n\nSo in theory asthma would be beneficial because the parasites were more of a threat to life at that time.\n\nAnother disease to look at is Sickle cell anaemia. I believe it gives a degree of protection against malaria and depending on your environment that might be something that saves your life.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Also, there are many bacteria that live in us and on us.\nWhen it is not exclusively \"bad for us\" they call it a symbiotic relationship, and not a disease?\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Google \"Normal Bowel Flora\" and become acquainted with our friendly neighbors that live in the nether regions up our anus.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I don't know if this is exactly what you mean. But I have an illness that effects my neurological system. When I first got sick my senses were hypersensitive. I was tasting, smelling, and hearing things like superman. \n\nOne simple example... I could smell the gas from a stove burner misfiring from basically anywhere in the neighborhood. I was once sitting on the deck outside, said I smelled gas, everyone looked at me like I was crazy, my mom came out and confirmed I was right. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "MITOCHONDRIA- an ancient infection that now lets us better utilize oxygen.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Lots of diseases are good for you. The two that come to my mind immediately are cystic fibrosis and sickle cell.\n\nFor sickle cell, being even a heterozygote makes you virtually immune to malaria. They believe that's what that particular disorder was selected for. Sickle cell was most seen in areas that are endemic for malaria. That's why the percentage is so high in black people. \n\nFor cystic fibrosis, it is thought that it prevents the devastating effects of vibrio cholerae. If your ion channels are messed up, you can't get the voluminous diarrhea. CF is also seen more in white people. \n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Carrying the sickle cell anemia trait actually makes the carrier immune to malaria. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Putting aside the definition of disease as pointed out below, there sort of are.\n\nSickle-cell anemia comes from having two copies of a mutated gene that causes crippling malformation of blood cells. But getting only one copy of the mutation only modifies the cells enough to confer some immunity to malaria. In the pre-historic tropics, that was very beneficial.\n\nCertain parasitic infections appear to cure inflamitory bowl disease.\n\nAnother mutation caused early hominids to have crippled jaw muscles---and made way for a larger brain.\n\n\"Good\" and \"bad\" have no meaning in nature. Those are judgements we come along and apply after the fact.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Your intestines, specifically what's inside it.\n\nDiseases/viruses are usually used to describe shit that harms you. Bacteria sounds negative but in fact there's a magiiicalll bacteria living in your gut that's in a very important symbiotic relationship with us. However when you die, decomposition starts in your gut due to that bacteria. I won't lie, there's a fuckload of diseases/viruses/bacteria that wants to see the world burn.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It should be said that there are tons of microorganisms that are good for us. We just call them \"gut biota\" instead of \"diseases\". ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Toxoplasmosa gondii parasites have a bad rap. :(\n\nPeople most often associate toxoplasmosis with the reason pregnant women shouldn't scoop kitty litter. However, infection is actually associated with many qualities that we could consider \"positive\"!\n\n_URL_0_\n\n1) Want to be taller? Infected males are 2-3 cm taller than their non-infected counterparts. \n\n2) Sharp jawline, masculine look? Infected males are described by independent and blinded female taters as appearing more \"masculine\" and having more manly features.\n\n3). Tough guy! Infected male humans have higher serum levels of testosterone. The longer you have been infected, the higher your testosterone, the higher your sex drive! If you are worried about your performance, perhaps you should consider getting a kitty! \n\n4). Winning personality! Infected women were compared with uninfected women. Toxoplasmosis appears to give women more kind, empathetic, and easy-going personalities. \n\n5). Ensuring your family line. Infected women had a higher incidence of having a male baby! This is believed to be due to suppression of the immune system. Apparently male zygotes are more likely to have slight imperfections that cause them to be rejected by the immune system. So when immunity is suppressed, those babies that would have been rejected end up being born. Many of them are normal, but babies with Down syndrome are much more likely to be born to women infected with toxoplasmosis. \n\nSo sure, this little buggy (parasite that passes through the blood-brain barrier and makes a home) has some negative effects, but most infected individuals have what is called \"asymptomatic infection.\" In fact, a whopping 30% of the population is already infected. Most show no negative symptoms! However, pregnant women should still beware because if you are not already infected, getting infected while you are pregnant can put you and your baby at risk! \n\nHow's that for a TIL?\n\nTLDR: 30% of the U.S. population has \"asymptomatic\" toxoplasmosis infection with pleasant side effects like taller stature, more pleasant personality, and even changes to fertility! Infected men are more manly and infected women are more pleasant, on average! So get yourself a cat, today!\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Humans are already like a machine. Random intervention is almost always disruptive, making it run worse. It would be like throwing dirt, squirrels and random car parts at an engine and making it run faster.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "One example is malaria protection from sickle cell anemia. The deformities to the red blood cells interfere with the development of malaria symptoms. Sickle cell disease is more common in areas where malaria is more prevalent as a result. \n \nIf you were looking for something purely beneficial it's not a perfect example, but it is at least a benefit from a disease.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Ever heard of probiotics?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I watched THE BEST documentary ever the other night about how good it can be for you to get certain types of infestation and infection. Life on Us.\n\nThey had this scientist dude hanging out underneath toilet blocks in Uganda trying to find this one tape-worm, and this other doctor giving people fecal implants to try to get certain types of bacteria into people. \n\nFECAL. TRANSPLANTS. Watch this show to see a mega syringe full of shit go into somebody, if for no other reason.\n\nAnyway the point is that a lot of \"infections\" are things we need. And other infections are things we've gotten so used to fighting that now we don't have them, our immune systems go berko and we get allergies, asthma, diabetes, even depression. They were curing all this shit by putting bugs in people. IT WAS AMAZING.\n\nYou can maybe see it here: _URL_1_\n\nand here's the production company behind it: \n\n_URL_0_\n\nand some examples of the benefits of worms.\n_URL_2_\n\n\n\n",
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"answer": "I think no one got the point of the OP question ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sorry but the question is the question is worded incorrectly. By definition a disease describes a pathological condition and is thus harming us by definition. However if the question is \"are there any microorganism that by invading our bodies does good rather than harm, well, we are full of it! \nFor a start, without our normal micro-flora (microbes that normally live on us, especially in our guts and on our skin) we would not survive. Bacteria in our gut help us to synthesize essential vitamins, digest our food, strengthen our immune system and even regulate hormones.\nBacteria on our skin protect us from invading bacteria by competing for resources or even by actively engaging and destroying potential pathogens.\nMoreover, at some earlier evolutionary stage, some bacteria and viruses became so bounded in this mutually beneficial relationship that they became part of us: e.g. our mitochondria has bacterial origins an its own DNA, many rota-viruses' DNA has recombine with our own and is now part of what it is to be human.\nTo sum up, yes they exists, and we would not even exist without them. However since they are part of the normal functioning of our bodies we do not recognize them as diseases. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Gout is neuroprotective. Sickle cell (disease/trait) protects from malaria infection. A lot of people who are heterozygous (one normal & one abnormal gene) for many diseases actually have reproductive advantages.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "So, as explained below, there are some symbiotic bacteria and viruses. I think the question is fairly valid though - in general, contagious diseases have deleterious effects on the body. There are several reasons why you expect them to be mostly bad -\n\n1) Most changes you can make to an organism will hurt it - if there was some easy fix to our biochemistry that would give us +2 charisma, evolution would probably already have made that change. It's going to be unlikely for a pathogen to evolve one of the few things that could help us.\n\n2) Even if it did, anything that helps us will probably come at the cost of resources the pathogen could be using to reproduce. Note that most pathogens are not actively *trying* to kill us - pathogens very rarely produce poisons intended to hurt their host (and god help us when they do - e.g. the S aureus bacteria which cause toxic shock syndrome). They hurt us as a side effect of reproducing.\n\n3)Our immune system is still going to be working against a beneficial pathogen, barring a long process of coevolution in which we evolve to tolerate that specific pathogen, without losing immunity to its' relatives.\n\n4)Even when this does actually happen, the pathogen will pretty rapidly reach 100% infection - and will become one of our symbionts - like the bacteria or retroviruses mentioned below. I.e. it won't be considered a pathogen anymore.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This was a recurrent theme in Red Dwarf. [Link](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Dis ease. Good things don't take away your ease. It's a definition thing. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are. Your gut bacteria comes to mind immediately.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because viruses and bacteria that are good for you/ harmless aren't called diseases.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sickle Cell makes you resistant to malaria.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If no one has mentioned it, there is a kind of tapeworm that nullifies all your allergies and asthma...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Am I the only one thinking of Frys gas station egg salad from the men's room?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are certain spiders which, if they bite you, bestow great powers (but also great responsibilities).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are more bacterial cells in your body than there are human cells.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because the pathogen is using resources and its environment for its own purposes. This causes problems in the function of the host.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "14579421",
"title": "Introduction to viruses",
"section": "Section::::Viruses and diseases.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 43,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 43,
"end_character": 290,
"text": "Common human diseases caused by viruses include the common cold, the flu, chickenpox and cold sores. Serious diseases such as Ebola and AIDS are also caused by viruses. Many viruses cause little or no disease and are said to be \"benign\". The more harmful viruses are described as virulent.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "3013731",
"title": "Trust for America's Health",
"section": "Section::::Emerging infectious diseases.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 235,
"text": "In \"Germs Go Global: Why Emerging Infectious Diseases Are a Threat to America,\" TFAH concludes that these diseases have real consequences for the nation's public health system, delivery of medical care, economy, and national security.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6090525",
"title": "Neglected tropical diseases",
"section": "Section::::Reasons for neglect.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 82,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 82,
"end_character": 464,
"text": "This group of diseases has been overlooked because they mainly affect the poorest countries of the developing world and because of recent emphasis on decreasing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Far more resources are given to the \"big three\" diseases (HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis) because of their higher mortality and public awareness rates. Neglected tropical diseases do not have a prominent cultural figure to champion the cause.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "18711903",
"title": "Adverse event prediction",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 488,
"text": "Predicting adverse events accurately represents a significant challenge to both the pharmaceutical industry and academia, the reason being that our existing knowledge of biology, disease mechanisms (i.e. how a disease affects the healthy state of a human) and drug design is incomplete and sometimes incorrect. On top of that, the biological complexity and differences between living organisms is such that even if a treatment appears to work in the laboratory it may not work in humans.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2345894",
"title": "Social issue",
"section": "Section::::Types.:Public health.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 27,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 27,
"end_character": 462,
"text": "Infectious diseases are often public health concerns because they can spread quickly and easily, affecting large numbers of members. The World Health Organization has an acute interest in combatting infectious disease outbreaks by minimizing their geographic and numerical spread and treating the affected. Other conditions for which there is not yet a cure or even effective treatment, such as dementia, can be viewed as public health concerns in the long run.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "60058134",
"title": "Diseases of despair",
"section": "Section::::Terminology.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 251,
"text": "The name \"diseases of despair\" has been criticized for being unfair to the people who are adversely affected by social and economic forces beyond their control, and for underplaying the role of specific drugs, such as OxyContin, in increasing deaths.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "29802394",
"title": "Social history of viruses",
"section": "Section::::20th and 21st centuries.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 319,
"text": "Of the many diseases of humans that were found to be caused by viruses in the 20th century one, smallpox, has been eradicated. The diseases caused by viruses such as HIV and influenza virus have proved to be more difficult to control. Other diseases, such as those caused by arboviruses, are presenting new challenges.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
8pz2sv | how does the water table work? i just did deep enough and then there's water? why aren't deep caves flooded then? | [
{
"answer": " > I just did deep enough and then there's water?\n\nbasically. if you had a cup of water, and added sand until the top was dry, you would have a water table. you can do this near the beach. dig down a bit and the sand is wet. \n\nthe earth is a bit more complicated, though. for instance, certain materials can form a barrier to water. clay is quite famous for it. a layer of clay can trap the water and keep it lower than it normally would be, or elevate it so its closer to the surface than you would expect because the water can't slip through.\n\nsolid rock can also keep water out, and the water in the ground will go around it.\n\n > Why aren't deep caves flooded then?\n\nmost of them are. the ones that aren't are the exception, and mines spend huge amounts of resources keeping water out.\n\nmost caves are formed by water. a small fissure in rock has water flow through it for millions of years and it slowly erodes it, opening the fissure wider and lower as gravity pulls it down. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5778",
"title": "Cave",
"section": "Section::::Types and formation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 307,
"text": "It is estimated that a cave cannot exceed in depth due to the pressure of overlying rocks. For karst caves the maximum depth is determined on the basis of the lower limit of karst forming processes, coinciding with the base of the soluble carbonate rocks. Most caves are formed in limestone by dissolution.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "43797463",
"title": "Gilindire Cave",
"section": "Section::::Exploration.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 511,
"text": "According to a survey by experts, the cave was formed in the beginning of the transition phase after the last glacial climate change of the Quaternary Period, when the Mediterranean Sea rose , flooding the bottom of the cave. The change in the hydrological regime helped preserve the cave formations such as stalagmites and stalactites. Due to being under water, they have remained unaffected by atmospheric changes to the present day. The lake's water is brackish to a depth of , while deeper water is saline.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "50805702",
"title": "Caves of Arcy-sur-Cure",
"section": "Section::::Location and description.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 219,
"text": "Originally open at both ends, collapsing ground closed one of the caves when the underground water flow sharply diminished. This cave now ends with basins at ground level formed by limestone deposits left by the water.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "23776735",
"title": "Lummelunda Cave",
"section": "Section::::Geology and geography.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 226,
"text": "The cave is a karst cave, formed by surface water trickling down through cracks in the limestone. When the surface water meets the groundwater, it starts to dissolve the limestone and widen the cracks into passages and halls.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "28412338",
"title": "Rouffignac Cave",
"section": "Section::::Geography and description of the cave.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 420,
"text": "The plan of the cave reveals a fractal-like dendritic pattern that is not random but organized along certain preferred directions. Presumably the cave was formed during the Pliocene about 3 to 2 million years ago. Water had infiltrated the bedrock along certain zones of weakness and dissolved the limestone. Today this process has come to an end, and the cave is mostly dry except for the rivulet along the base level.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "54895556",
"title": "Eichener See",
"section": "Section::::Geology and hydrology.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 533,
"text": "Geologically it is a doline which is periodically filled with water, particularly after snowmelt or after long periods of rain when the groundwater level reaches the surface. In dry periods, the depth of the water table may be up to 40 metres; the deepest point of the groundwater-storing basin lies about 48 metres below the earth's surface. The background to the large variations in water level are the caverns of the Dinkelberg (which consists mainly of muschelkalk) which can fill very quickly with water, but only empty slowly.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8197423",
"title": "Waitomo Glowworm Caves",
"section": "Section::::Geology.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 335,
"text": "The caves began to form when earth movement caused the hard limestone to bend and buckle under the ocean and rise above the sea floor. As the rock was exposed to air, it separated and created cracks and weaknesses that allowed for water to flow through them dissolving the limestone and over millions of years large caves were formed.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
36kie0 | What kind of spices did the ancient Mesopotamians use? | [
{
"answer": "From what we know (from texts and palaeobotanic studies), there were many spices that are also used in modern Middle Eastern cuisine, such as onion, garlic, coriander, cumin, fennel, cress, dill, mint, thyme, cardamom... \n\nIn addition, we have words for spices attested in the texts where we are not entirely sure what plant/spice they refer to.\n\nI'm not a 100% sure that the word for sumac has been correctly identified, but it is a fair assumption that it would have been used in cooking.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "52085224",
"title": "Spice use in Antiquity",
"section": "Section::::Products and uses.:Ritual use.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 106,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 106,
"end_character": 341,
"text": "The ritual use of spices was common in the classical era, in many instances spices were used in oils by soaking them or creating fragrances by burning them. However many of the spices that became common place in the late classical period were spices that were originally from countries outside of Roman territory and acquired through trade.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "53469",
"title": "Cinnamon",
"section": "Section::::History.:Ancient history.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 267,
"text": "In Ancient Egypt, cinnamon was used to embalm mummies. From Hellenistic times onward, Ancient Egyptian recipes for \"kyphi\", an aromatic used for burning, included cinnamon and cassia. The gifts of Hellenistic rulers to temples sometimes included cassia and cinnamon.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "38736209",
"title": "Food and dining in the Roman Empire",
"section": "Section::::Grains and legumes.:Seasonings and sweeteners.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 25,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 25,
"end_character": 400,
"text": "Other imported spices were saffron, cinnamon, and the silphium of Cyrene, a type of pungent fennel that was over-harvested into extinction during the reign of Nero, after which time it was replaced with \"laserpicium\", asafoetida exported from present-day Afghanistan. Pliny estimated that Romans spent 100 million sesterces a year on spices and perfumes from India, China, and the Arabian peninsula.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "26897",
"title": "Spice",
"section": "Section::::History.:Early history.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 250,
"text": "The earliest written records of spices come from ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and Indian cultures. The Ebers Papyrus from Early Egyptians that dates from 1550 describes some eight hundred different medicinal remedies and numerous medicinal procedures.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "52085224",
"title": "Spice use in Antiquity",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 473,
"text": "Spices have been around in conjunction with human use for millennia, many civilizations in antiquity used a variety of spices for their common qualities. The variety of spices were used for common purposes among the ancient world, and they were also used to create a variety of products designed to enhance or suppress certain sensations. Spices were also associated with certain rituals to perpetuate a superstition, or fulfill a religious obligation, among other things.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "52085224",
"title": "Spice use in Antiquity",
"section": "Section::::History of early known spice use.:Greece and Rome.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 560,
"text": "Largely due to Alexander the Great's conquest, of Asia Minor and the Hellenic World, was he able to gain access to many Eastern spices. Many Eastern spices like pepper, cassia, cinnamon, and ginger were imported by the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates, often called the \"Father of Medicine,\"wrote many treatises on medicinal plants including saffron, cinnamon, thyme, coriander, mint, and marjoram. One of the most important Greek medicinal spices was used as early as the 7th century BCE and was known as Silphium, a plant that went extinct in the 1st century CE.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "32610",
"title": "Vikings",
"section": "Section::::Trade.:Goods.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 122,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 122,
"end_character": 219,
"text": "BULLET::::- Spices were obtained from Chinese and Persian traders, who met with the Viking traders in Russia. Vikings used homegrown spices and herbs like caraway, thyme, horseradish and mustard, but imported cinnamon.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
3ihw2f | why after 30+ years of life do i still randomly choke on my own spit at random? | [
{
"answer": "Well besides being inconvenient, its not lethal, so natural selection saw no reason to weed it out. Take myopia (Needing glasses) for instance, besides being more than inconvenient, its not automatically lethal so we still see it today.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I've read that as we were evolving to allow for complex speech, the larynx dropped lower in our throats. This makes it a lot easier for us to choke, though. So it's just an annoying trade-off for being able to speak.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because there's no other way to do things randomly than at random?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You might have a hole in your esophagus like myself and my Mother. When we swallow, sometimes the saliva goes down the wrong tube and we cough like a smoker. Also, sometimes we can hear a clicking noise when we gulp down a drink.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm surprised I didn't see dysphagia as a top answer. It can happen to anyone. I work in a residential care facility and have to texturize food for our clients, as they have difficulty swallowing, most as a side effect of medications. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because human beings are incredibly poorly designed.\n\nWe have two sets of tubes, one of which processes gasses and needs to be devoid of solids and liquids at all times to avoid catastrophic failure, and another set of tube to process solids and liquids. So why in the universe would you have both of those systems share the exact same pipe? Other animals like dolphins have two completely separate sets of pipes (the blowhole is not connected to the mouth in any way, so they can't breath through their mouth) to make choking on food impossible, but humans demonstrate a remarkable lack of basic design sensibilities in their construction and use a series of small trapdoors to try and keep liquids out of your lungs.\n\nDon't even get me started on how stupidly the human eye is designed when compared to the blindspot-free squid eye.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This is so bizarre, I can't believe it. \n\nI just turned 60, and in a blinding display of synchronicity, *just two days ago* this happened to me for the first time in my life.\n\nI was seriously in distress! I coughed my throat raw… and then I see it on Reddit. Weird.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "17614090",
"title": "Thin (film)",
"section": "Section::::Main Participants.:Brittany.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
"end_character": 366,
"text": "According to Brittany, her mother also has an eating disorder and in an interview, Brittany describes how they would have \"the greatest time\" with \"chew and spit\"; chewing \"bags and bags of candy\" and spitting it out without swallowing. Her mother's experience of anorexia is touched upon in greater detail in an interview in the film's companion book, also titled \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1208426",
"title": "Gag (BDSM)",
"section": "Section::::Types of gag.:Stuff.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 75,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 75,
"end_character": 436,
"text": "While it works in preventing speech, a person who has been stuff gagged can easily spit it out by pushing it with his/her tongue. However, it is for this reason that the stuff gag is one of the safest gags to use during self bondage, as the person with his/her hands tied can still spit the gag out if he/she feels any kind of discomfort. However, the risks of asphyxiation and choking are still present for someone who is not careful.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "60672490",
"title": "Superstition in Judaism",
"section": "Section::::Common modern-day superstitions.:Spitting three times.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 811,
"text": "Spitting three times, usually accompanied by the sounds 'pooh, pooh, pooh', is a common superstition performed in response to something particularly good or evil. This superstition is considered to have evolved from a medieval ritual that clears the minds of individuals. This was originally done to ward off dark magic and demonic creatures, however, today it is performed as a precautionary measure to prevent great tragedy. Ancient and medieval Jewish physicians often described the positive value of saliva, perceiving it to have healing powers, which suggests a reason for why this action is done. Spitting three times is also performed when something exceptional happens, such as on a wedding day or the birth of a healthy baby, as it is a precautionary measure to ward of the potential for evil spirits.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "50462060",
"title": "Brief resolved unexplained event",
"section": "Section::::Causes.:Gastroesophageal reflux disease.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 18,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 18,
"end_character": 461,
"text": "Vomiting or choking during feeding can trigger laryngospasm that leads to a BRUE or ALTE. This is a likely cause if the infant had vomiting or regurgitation just prior to the event, or if the event occurred while the infant was awake and lying down. In healthy infants with a suggestive GER event, no additional testing is typically done. In infants with repeated episodes of choking or repeated acute events, evaluation with a swallowing study can be helpful.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1639065",
"title": "Competitive eating",
"section": "Section::::Contest structure.:Rules and overview of events.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 22,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 22,
"end_character": 491,
"text": "If, at any point during or immediately after the contest, a competitor regurgitates any food, he or she will be disqualified. Vomiting, also known as a \"reversal\", or, as ESPN and the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest call it, a \"reversal of fortune\", includes obvious signs of vomiting as well as any small amounts of food that may fall from the mouth deemed by judges to have come from the stomach. Small amounts of food already in the mouth prior to swallowing are excluded from this rule.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11534627",
"title": "Fanny Imlay",
"section": "Section::::Life.:Infancy and early childhood.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 548,
"text": "When you were hungry, you began to cry, because you could not speak. You were seven months without teeth, always sucking. But after you got one, you began to gnaw a crust of bread. It was not long before another came pop. At ten months you had four pretty white teeth, and you used to bite me. Poor mamma! Still I did not cry, because I am not a child, but you hurt me very much. So I said to papa, it is time the little girl should eat. She is not naughty, yet she hurts me. I have given her a crust of bread, and I must look for some other milk.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "49084911",
"title": "Fit for Fashion (season 1)",
"section": "Section::::Episode Synopsis.:Episode 1:The Raw Material.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 266,
"text": "Tensions start to rise within the first few minutes, as some contestants appear to bite off more than they can chew. It doesn’t take long to realize that one team clearly has what it takes while the other fails miserably and there is plenty of blame to pass around.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
5ydojv | with websites like expedia, and the ease of access to the internet, what exactly do travel agents do nowadays? | [
{
"answer": "If something goes wrong, you've got a person to call who will do cartwheels to make it right for you. Any and all of it. ",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "My friend is one. She sells travel packages to people who just don't want to deal with it, and there are a lot of people like that. There are people who don't \"use the internet\" or \"trust the internet\", there are people who just want to go somewhere and don't want to bother with the details of finding a hotel, flight, car, etc. they just want to walk in to an office, talk to a real person and say: i want to take my family of 4 on a 2 week vacation in may, we want to go to Paris, can you get us there and arrange everything?\n\n There'd also people who are going on their first vacation, first flight, etc. to some people planning flights is hard.\n\nAnd finally there's also people who maybe don't have the confidence of organizing themselves. Maybe they don't speak the language that well. Maybe they're worried about shady hotels. Maybe maybe maybe.\n\nThey provide a service to all of these people and more.\n\nMy friend also hates her job because it's 99% a sales job. She's forced to upsell and to sell expensive packages. To an internet savvy person with some common sense you could arrange everything yourself for a better deal, but that's not their audience. ",
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"answer": "I want to add that travel agents allow you to book a holiday and pay it off slowly before it gets to your departure date (at no fee). \n\nIf you're paying online you have to stump all the cash up front there and then (which for some people is not an option)\n\nThis therefore makes it more attractive to people who like to book their holiday far in advance and find it hard to save\n\n",
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"answer": "Travel isn't all about booking flights and hotels.\n\nWe travelled to Africa a couple of years ago on an organised tour and used a travel agent. Three were a number of advantages to using an agent:\n\n- Agents travel to experience what they are selling their clients. They learn what the different companies offer, what's at different destinations and what's worth seeing.\n\n- they knew what countries needed visas beforehand and what could be walked into, they also organised it all.\n\n- they knew the currencies and how much of each we should have.\n\n- they knew how to get us those little things that make it special (made sure the for company knew we were on Our honeymoon)\n\n- we paid one bill to one company instead of little bits all over the place.\n",
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"answer": "I use a travel agent because there are so many things you can't do when booking yourself. Extra day or two in Hawaii on your way to Japan? Check. Getting a last minute hotel room for the same price as a hostel in Amsterdam? No problem. Changing a flight time for free? Easy-cheesey! Always costs less with more room for adaptability. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Tigured I'd throw in a perspective I didnt see mentioned yet: Travel agents make big bucks on buisness and groups. \n\nI just ordered a 3 week round trip for 40 people trough one because I could not imagine having to deal with making sure there were enough seats on the plane to book, finding reasonable hotels without much experience and booking bus companies that only deal in a foreign language.\n\nA travel agent did that for about $100. The rest of their profit were from comissions, and we actually made money using them because they found us cheaper tickets.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "In airports, most of the hotels etc. one can communicate in English (and native language of the country).\n\nNow imagine a tourists from non-English speaking country. It could be a person who wants to spend winter holiday in tropical country (enjoy hotel, beaches etc.), but does not know enough of English to talk to border guards, taxi drivers, hotel staff... The person might be a little xenophobic and prefer to be surrounded by people of the same nationality, speaking his native language. \nTravel agency is able to gather a group of such minded people. Send a guide who speaks both English and native language. Book them to a single hotel, so they can enjoy holiday in each others company.\nThe guide usually knows culture of people going for holidays and local culture of the place. So he/she can warn tourists about non-obvious laws or taboos and smooth the situation with locals in case of problems.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "597759",
"title": "Travel agency",
"section": "Section::::Travel agencies in the 21st century.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 25,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 25,
"end_character": 730,
"text": "In response, travel agencies have developed an internet presence of their own by creating travel websites, with detailed information and online booking capabilities. Travel agencies also use the services of the major computer reservations systems companies, also known as Global Distribution Systems (GDS), including: Amadeus CRS, Galileo CRS, SABRE, and Worldspan, which is a subsidiary of Travelport, allowing them to book and sell airline tickets, car rentals, hotels, and other travel related services. Some online travel websites allow visitors to compare hotel and flight rates with multiple companies for free; they often allow visitors to sort the travel packages by amenities, price, and proximity to a city or landmark.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "10442845",
"title": "Travel website",
"section": "Section::::Travelogues.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 565,
"text": "Many travel websites are online travelogues or travel journals, usually created by individual travelers and hosted by companies that generally provide their information to consumers for free. These companies generate revenue through advertising or by providing services to other businesses. This medium produces a wide variety of styles, often incorporating graphics, photography, maps, and other unique content. Some examples of websites that use a combination of travel reviews and the booking of travel are TripAdvisor, Priceline, Liberty Holidays, and Expedia.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "10442845",
"title": "Travel website",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 250,
"text": "A travel website is a website on the world wide web that is dedicated to travel. The site may be focused on travel reviews, trip fares, or a combination of both. Approximately 587.3 million consumers are expected to book travel plans online in 2018.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "49988182",
"title": "Travel itinerary",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 803,
"text": "The construction of a travel itinerary may be assisted by the use of travel literature, including travel journals and diaries, a guide book containing information for visitors or tourists about the destination, or a trip planner website dedicated to helping the users plan their trips. Typically a travel itinerary is prepared by a travel agent who assists one in conducting their travel for business or leisure. Most commonly a travel agent provides a list of pre-planned travel itineraries to a traveller, who can then pick one that they're most satisfied with. However, with the advent of the internet, online maps, navigation, online trip planners and easier access to travel information in general, travellers, especially the younger ones prefer a more do-it-yourself approach to travel planning. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "49988182",
"title": "Travel itinerary",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 557,
"text": "A travel itinerary might serve different purposes for different kinds of travellers. A typical business traveller's itinerary might include information about meetings, events and contacts with some time for leisure travel, while a leisure traveller's itinerary would predominantly include destinations, points of interest and transportation means. Online trip planners like Sygic, Roadtrippers and Triphobo.com help cater to different traveller profiles by providing easier access to information and a tool to organise a travel itinerary more efficiently. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "38156260",
"title": "Travelstart",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 315,
"text": "The website uses global distribution systems such as Amadeus IT Group and Travelfusion for flights, and CarTrawler for online car hire bookings. Most revenue is generated from Pay per click (PPC) advertising, as well as an extensive affiliate network. All Travelstart websites use Thawte to secure online payments.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "25451895",
"title": "Digital nomad",
"section": "Section::::Popularity.:Legal developments.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 1077,
"text": "Many digital nomads tend to come from more developed nations with passports allowing a greater degree of freedom of travel. As a result, many tend to travel on a tourist visa. While it is technically illegal for a digital nomad to work in a country on a tourist visa, many digital nomads tend to reside in locations with a lower cost of living while working remotely on projects outside their country of residence. In most countries, as long as the nomad is discreet and is not taking a job away from a local person, the authorities will turn a blind eye to nomad work. Visa runs are also often common in the digital nomad community. Some nomads have also attempted to legalize their stay by taking up part-time jobs in teaching English as well as taking university courses in their host country. In addition, digital nomads are often using their status as permanent travelers to escape the tax liability in their home countries without, however, immigrating to the tax system of another country. Nevertheless, this practice is considered controversial amongst digital nomads.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
1qe0xp | How did WW1 armies know when individual soldiers died on the battlefield? | [
{
"answer": "They kept records of these guys and their families. Each soldier wears tags identifying them, find a body with tags a telegram is dispatched. If they don't find a body but the soldier fails to appear or report in they are missing and after a while missing and presumed dead.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "19466336",
"title": "British Army during World War I",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 630,
"text": "The men at the front had to struggle with supply problems–there was a shortage of food; and disease was rife in the damp, rat-infested conditions. Along with enemy action, many soldiers had to contend with new diseases: trench foot, trench fever and trench nephritis. When the war ended in November 1918, British Army casualties, as the result of enemy action and disease, were recorded as 673,375 killed and missing, with another 1,643,469 wounded. The rush to demobilise at the end of the conflict substantially decreased the strength of the British Army, from its peak strength of 3,820,000 men in 1918 to 370,000 men by 1920.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "561439",
"title": "You Rang, M'Lord?",
"section": "Section::::Plot.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 659,
"text": "In the pilot episode, two World War I soldiers stumble across the body of an officer while crossing no-man's land under heavy gunfire during the Battle of Amiens in 1918. Assuming the officer is dead, one soldier, Alf Stokes, attempts to rob the officer, much to the disgust of his comrade, James Twelvetrees. After it becomes apparent that the unconscious officer is not dead, the two men see their chance to escape the battle by carrying the officer to a field hospital. The two soldiers are later called to see the officer, The Honourable Teddy Meldrum, who says he is eternally grateful for their services, and tells them he will always be in their debt.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "182259",
"title": "Trench warfare",
"section": "Section::::Temporary truces.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 79,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 79,
"end_character": 744,
"text": "At various times during the war—particularly early on—official truces were organised so that the wounded could be recovered from no man's land and the dead could be buried. Generally, senior commands disapproved of any slackening of the offensive for humanitarian reasons and so ordered their troops not to permit enemy stretcher-bearers to operate in no man's land. However, this order was almost invariably ignored by the soldiers in the trenches, who knew that it was to the mutual benefit of the fighting men of both sides to allow the wounded to be retrieved. So, as soon as hostilities ceased, parties of stretcher bearers, marked with Red Cross flags, would go out to recover the wounded, sometimes swapping enemy wounded for their own.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "5075440",
"title": "Canada in the World Wars and Interwar Years",
"section": "Section::::World War I.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 269,
"text": "The 620,000 men in service were most remembered for combat in the trenches of the Western Front; there were 67,000 war dead and 173,000 wounded. This total does not include the 2,000 deaths and 9,000 injuries in December 1917 when a munitions ship exploded in Halifax.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6257409",
"title": "Sri Lanka Army",
"section": "Section::::History.:Colonial era.:British rule (1798–1948).:Ceylon Defence Force.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 29,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 29,
"end_character": 374,
"text": "During the First World War, many volunteers from the Defence Force travelled to Great Britain and joined the British Army, and many of them were killed in action. One of them mentioned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was Private Jacotine of the CLI, who was the last man left alive in his unit at the Battle of Lys, and who continued to fight for 20 minutes before he was killed.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "34915981",
"title": "World War I memorials",
"section": "Section::::Inter-war (1919–39).:Innovation and grieving.:Cenotaphs and Tombs of the Unknown Soldier.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 61,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 61,
"end_character": 414,
"text": "A large number of soldiers who died in the war were never found, and similarly bodies were recovered that could not be identified; once again, this required new forms of memorial. The scale of the issue was once again huge: 73,000 Allied dead were never found at the Somme, for example, either because their bodies had been lost, destroyed or were unrecognisable, more than one in ten of the losses in the battle.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "33111",
"title": "World War I casualties",
"section": "Section::::Footnotes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 135,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 135,
"end_character": 769,
"text": "BULLET::::- There are three published official figures for army deaths. One: official figures issued by the British Army in 1921 put their losses at 673,375 dead and missing from all causes in combat theaters. Two: the summary in the 1922 report of the War Office put army and Royal Naval Division dead from the British Isles at 702,410. The authors of the War Office report did not explain the difference between their figures and the official figures issued in 1921 by the British army, however the difference is more than likely due to the inclusion of the Royal Naval Division and deaths outside of combat theaters. Three: the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database available online identifies by name 758,000 army dead, not including the Royal Naval Division\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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| null |
95d6b2 | How many people were really being sacrificed every year in the Aztec Empire before the Spanish arrived? I’ve heard claims it was in the tens of thousands or much lower. | [
{
"answer": "There's always room for discussion, but perhaps the section [Human Sacrifice and Blood Sacrifice](_URL_0_) in the Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) portion of our FAQ will answer your inquiry.",
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"answer": "I'll try and cover a few of your specific points, starting with the fact *Apocalypto* did not intend to portray the Aztecs, but the Maya. The film does (poorly) mash in some aspects of Aztec sacrifice, if only to further its goal of being colonialist apologia and torture porn. Fortunately, the sheer awfulness of the movie makes it a good jumping off point to talk about actual practices of sacrifice.\n\nTo start with, there were slaves in the Aztec world and a portion of them did come from slave raids. The whole notion of actual warriors going out to get slaves for sacrifices, however, is a bit ridiculous. While slaves would sometimes be used for sacrifices in particular circumstances, the majority of sacrifices stemmed from war captives. Taking a captive was considered a rite of passage for a young warrior and a requirement for military and social advancement. Note, however, that simply snatching up some schmuck from a podunk village was not a standard practice; the expectation was taking a captive *in battle*. Also, later in the Imperial phase of the Aztecs, certain opponents became so little regarded that even taking several of them in battle earned little more than a shrug, as this passage from Sahagun illustrates:\n\n > And if six, or seven, or ten Huaxtecs, or barbarians, were taken, he gained thereby no renown. \n\nConversely, taking captive from more formidable opponents, such as those from Atlixco and Huexotzinco (which were coincidentally in the hard-fought borderland with Tlaxcala), earned great acclaim. So the notion of Aztec warriors raiding villages too small to apparently even have maize fields does not make sense. \n\nOnce captives were taken there are some scant mentions of using cages. From the same book of Sahagun:\n\n > And there in battle was when captives were taken. When it had come to pass that they went against and conquered the city, then the captives were counted, there, in wooden cages: how many had been taken by Tenochtitlan, how many by Tlatilulco...\n\nSo using cages was a real thing, but there's no indication they were anything but temporary measures. For instance, they were also used during the sale of slaves, or when holding prisoners during trials. Captives were not simply rounded up and kept indefinitely like cattle in pens. Instead, captives were treated, well, like slaves, to be housed by their captors until the time of their sacrifice.\n\nWere those sarifices a public spectacle? Well, yes and no. Many of the sacrifices were public events, and some specifically so in a way that demonstrated the power of the Aztec state. Rulers and dignitaries of foreign, even enemy, nations would be invited to witness these displays as a form a intimidation.*Apocalypto* portrays these sorts of events as a wild bacchanal of primitives gyrating in a wild, unhinged frenzy. In fact, if we turn to sources like Duran or Sahagun, we see that even the most public and bloody ceremonies were highly regimented rituals of specific songs, dances, offerings, and adornments, each with its own meaning. There was an aspect of spectacle, but ultimately these were religious rites.\n\nWe can see the combination of somber and spectacle in accounts of the \"gladiatorial\" sacrifice which took place during Tlacaxipehualiztli. After weeks of preliminary rituals, captors would bring their captives to a particular *calmecac*, Yopico, in the Sacred Precinct. There the captor would lead his captive up to a raised platform upon which lay a large heavy stone. Tied to the stone and armed with a macuahuitl whose blades were feathers, the captive would face up to four elite warriors (and a fifth left-handed one if he managed to \"defeat\" the four), but would ultimately be sacrificed on that stone once he faltered.\n\nSo there's certainly some spectacle there and the whole notion of \"gladiatorial\" combat evokes the Colosseum, but there's some substantial differences. For one, there's some dispute as to the \"public-ness\" of this event. Sahagun mentions no one but the priests and the warriors, which does not preclude the presence of others. Duran, meanwhile, says the \"entire city was present,\" although the location of the particular calmecac where the combat took place was a smaller building off in one corner of the Sacred Precinct, which present problems for mass viewing. \n\nMore importantly though, the intentions were different. Even this particular sacrifice, which was among the largest (dozens are mentioned as sacrificed over the course of a day) and the combat making it among the most dramatic, the core aim was not to provide tititallation, but serve both as a sort of graduation ceremony for warriors who had taken a captive and also a way of providing \"sustenance\" to the gods. On that latter part, just as important as the actual combat was the captor taking the blood of his sacrifice, collected by the priests in a bowl, and going from idol to idol having them take a \"drink\" from the bowl. Considering the symbolic impetus of Aztec warfare was to engage in battle in order to \"feed\" the gods, this act not only completed that divine onus, but the entire gladiatorial spectacle re-created the process of warfare/capture/sacrifice. This was not just bread and circuses, in other words.\n\n",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5376312",
"title": "Human sacrifice in Aztec culture",
"section": "Section::::Holistic assessment.:Scope of Human Sacrifice In Aztec Culture.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 25,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 1403,
"text": "Michael Harner, in his 1977 article \"The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice\", cited an estimate by Borah of the number of persons sacrificed in central Mexico in the 15th century as high as 250,000 per year which may have been one percent of the population. Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl, a Mexica descendant and the author of Codex Ixtlilxochitl, estimated that one in five children of the Mexica subjects was killed annually. Victor Davis Hanson argues that a claim by Don Carlos Zumárraga of 20,000 per annum is \"more plausible\". Other scholars believe that, since the Aztecs often tried to intimidate their enemies, it is more likely that they could have inflated the number as a propaganda tool. The same can be said for Bernal Díaz's inflated calculations when, in a state of visual shock, he grossly miscalculated the number of skulls at one of the seven Tenochtitlan tzompantlis. The counter argument is that both the Aztecs and Diaz were very precise in the recording of the many other details of Aztec life, and inflation or propaganda would be unlikely. According to the Florentine Codex, fifty years before the conquest the Aztecs burnt the skulls of the former tzompantli. Archeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma has unearthed and studied some tzompantlis. In 2003, archaeologist Elizabeth Graham noted that the largest number of skulls yet found at a single tzompantli was only about a dozen.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "80332",
"title": "Human sacrifice",
"section": "Section::::History by region.:Pre-Columbian Americas.:North America.:Aztecs.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 91,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 91,
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"text": "Michael Harner, in his 1997 article \"The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice\", estimates the number of persons sacrificed in central Mexico in the 15th century as high as 250,000 per year. Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl, a Mexica descendant and the author of \"Codex Ixtlilxochitl\", claimed that one in five children of the Mexica subjects was killed annually. Victor Davis Hanson argues that an estimate by Carlos Zumárraga of 20,000 per annum is more plausible. Other scholars believe that, since the Aztecs always tried to intimidate their enemies, it is far more likely that they inflated the official number as a propaganda tool.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "80332",
"title": "Human sacrifice",
"section": "Section::::History by region.:Pre-Columbian Americas.:North America.:Aztecs.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 89,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 89,
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"text": "The Aztecs were particularly noted for practicing human sacrifice on a large scale; an offering to Huitzilopochtli would be made to restore the blood he lost, as the sun was engaged in a daily battle. Human sacrifices would prevent the end of the world that could happen on each cycle of 52 years. In the 1487 re-consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan some estimate that 80,400 prisoners were sacrificed though numbers are difficult to quantify as all obtainable Aztec texts were destroyed by Christian missionaries during the period 1528–1548. The Aztec, also known as Mexica, periodically sacrificed children as it was believed that the rain god, Tlāloc, required the tears of children.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "4382952",
"title": "Aztec religion",
"section": "Section::::Human sacrifice.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 81,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 1667,
"text": "Human sacrifice was practiced on a grand scale throughout the Aztec empire, although the exact figures are unknown. At Tenochtitlán, the principal Aztec city, according to Ross Hassig \"between 10,000 and 80,400 people\" were sacrificed over the course of four days for the dedication of the Great Pyramid in 1487. Excavations of the offerings in the main temple has provided some insight in the process, but the dozens of remains excavated are far short of the thousands of sacrifices recorded by eyewitnesses and other historical accounts. For millennia, the practice of human sacrifice was widespread in Mesoamerican and South American cultures. It was a theme in the Olmec religion, which thrived between 1200 BC and 400 BC and among the Maya. Human sacrifice was a very complex ritual. Every sacrifice had to be meticulously planned from the type of victim to the specific ceremony needed for the god. The sacrificial victims were usually warriors but sometimes slaves, depending upon the god and needed ritual. The higher the rank of the warrior the better he is looked at as a sacrifice. The victim(s) would then take on the persona of the god he was to be sacrificed for. The victim(s) would be housed, fed, and dressed accordingly. This process could last up to a year. When the sacrificial day arrived, the victim(s) would participate in the specific ceremonies of the god. These ceremonies were used to exhaust the victim so that he would not struggle during the ceremony. Then five priests, known as the Tlenamacac, performed the sacrifice usually at the top of a pyramid. The victim would be laid upon the table, held down and then have his heart cut out.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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{
"wikipedia_id": "53198",
"title": "Aztecs",
"section": "Section::::Religion.:Human sacrifice and cannibalism.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 95,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 95,
"end_character": 457,
"text": "While human sacrifice was practiced throughout Mesoamerica, the Aztecs, according to their own accounts, brought this practice to an unprecedented level. For example, for the reconsecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed 80,400 prisoners over the course of four days, reportedly by Ahuitzotl, the Great Speaker himself. This number, however, is not universally accepted and may have been exaggerated.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "80332",
"title": "Human sacrifice",
"section": "Section::::History by region.:Pre-Columbian Americas.:North America.:Aztecs.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 90,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 90,
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"text": "According to Ross Hassig, author of \"Aztec Warfare\", \"between 10,000 and 80,400 people\" were sacrificed in the ceremony. The old reports of numbers sacrificed for special feasts have been described as \"unbelievably high\" by some authors and that on cautious reckoning, based on reliable evidence, the numbers could not have exceeded at most several hundred per year in Tenochtitlan. The real number of sacrificed victims during the 1487 consecration is unknown.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "80329",
"title": "Sacrifice",
"section": "Section::::Human sacrifice.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 662,
"text": "Human sacrifice was practiced by various Pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica. The Aztec in particular are known for the practice of human sacrifice, though most popular estimates are over-estimations, and sacrifice was practiced on a far larger scale in ancient China. Current estimates of Aztec sacrifice are between a couple thousand and twenty thousand per year. Some of these sacrifices were to help the sun rise, some to help the rains come, and some to dedicate the expansions of the great temple at Tenochtitlán (their capital). There are also accounts of captured Conquistadores being sacrificed during the wars of the Spanish invasion of Mexico.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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| null |
2r3dcq | how slow can light be? | [
{
"answer": "Slow light is the propagation of an optical pulse or other modulation of an optical carrier at a very low group velocity. Slow light occurs when a propagating pulse is substantially slowed down by the interaction with the medium in which the propagation takes place.\n\nIn 1998, Danish physicist Lene Vestergaard Hau led a combined team from Harvard University and the Rowland Institute for Science which succeeded in slowing a beam of light to about 17 meters per second, and researchers at UC Berkeley slowed the speed of light traveling through a semiconductor to 9.7 kilometers per second in 2004. Hau later succeeded in stopping light completely, and developed methods by which it can be stopped and later restarted. This was in an effort to develop computers that will use only a fraction of the energy of today's machines.\n\nIn 2005, IBM created a microchip that can slow down light, fashioned out of fairly standard materials, potentially paving the way toward commercial adoption.\n\nLifted from _URL_0_",
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"answer": "We have managed to actually stop and store light in a crystal. It only lasted a minute but its possible. _URL_0_",
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "41452537",
"title": "A Slower Speed of Light",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 275,
"text": "A Slower Speed of Light is a freeware video game developed by MIT Game Lab that demonstrates the effects of special relativity by gradually slowing down the speed of light to a walking pace. The game runs on the Unity engine using the own open source OpenRelativity toolkit.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "20580",
"title": "Motion",
"section": "Section::::Light.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 44,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 44,
"end_character": 347,
"text": "Light propagates at 299,792,458 m/s, often approximated as in a vacuum. The speed of light (or \"c\") is also the speed of all massless particles and associated fields in a vacuum, and it is the upper limit on the speed at which energy, matter, information or causation can travel; the speed of light is the limit of speed for all physical systems.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2443",
"title": "Acceleration",
"section": "Section::::Relation to relativity.:Special relativity.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 49,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 49,
"end_character": 229,
"text": "As speeds approach that of light, the acceleration produced by a given force decreases, becoming infinitesimally small as light speed is approached; an object with mass can approach this speed asymptotically, but never reach it.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "740817",
"title": "Mathematical coincidence",
"section": "Section::::Some examples.:Numerical coincidences in numbers from the physical world.:Speed of light.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 64,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 64,
"end_character": 427,
"text": "The speed of light is (by definition) exactly 299,792,458 m/s, very close to 300,000,000 m/s. This is a pure coincidence, as the meter was originally defined as 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the Earth's pole and equator along the surface at sea level, and the Earth's circumference just happens to be about 2/15 of a light-second. It is also roughly equal to one foot per nanosecond (the actual number is 0.9836 ft/ns).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "339024",
"title": "Length contraction",
"section": "Section::::Basis in relativity.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 283,
"text": "Then, at a speed of 13,400,000 m/s (30 million mph, 0.0447) contracted length is 99.9% of the length at rest; at a speed of 42,300,000 m/s (95 million mph, 0.141), the length is still 99%. As the magnitude of the velocity approaches the speed of light, the effect becomes prominent.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "468939",
"title": "1676 in science",
"section": "Section::::Astronomy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 203,
"text": "BULLET::::- December 7 – Danish astronomer Ole Rømer measures the speed of light by observing the eclipses of Jupiter's moons, obtaining a speed of 140,000 miles per second (approximately 25% too slow).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "297839",
"title": "Time dilation",
"section": "Section::::Velocity time dilation.:Simple inference of velocity time dilation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 236,
"text": "This constancy of the speed of light means that, counter to intuition, speeds of material objects and light are not additive. It is not possible to make the speed of light appear greater by moving towards or away from the light source.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
4a05t6 | [Meta] Some thoughts on warnings | [
{
"answer": "Would you mind if someone from the modteam provides screencaps of your ban messages? You were temp banned as your third warning in this subreddit, not your first. ",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Rule #1 of reddit: Mods are dictators by nature of the system. \n\nThis sub understands that better than any around. Sounds like you were being a bit stone-minded about reposting an already removed comment. That *does* make perfect sense, and doesn't merit an extra rule in the list, as far as I'm concerned as a non-mod. The rules list is not meant to be a \"Here is a point-for-point explanation of what is and is not appropriate\". Else it'd be filled with every little arbitrary rule they could think of. \n\nThat's ridiculous. Rules of subreddits are not *laws*. They don't have to be enforced to the letter, or even posted at all. \n\nI get that you think that it should be simple enough for a mod to simply message and ask courteously, but compound that by a thousands. That's how often they'd have to do it. Because you're just one user among thousands. When you've received two warnings already, I think a temp ban for the third is totally justifiable. ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "Welcome back :)\n\nr/askhistorians, much like the academic discipline we strive to emulate, is a community, and like all other communities there are occasional unpleasant interactions as our ~~cruel overlords~~ gentle moderators do their best to keep things working smoothly.\n\nI'm sorry you were temporarily banned, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that I hope you stick around, learn from your interactions with the mod team about r/askhistorians's unique customs and querks, and continue to enjoy this sub.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4318747",
"title": "Supremacy: Your Will Be Done",
"section": "Section::::Gameplay.:Game events.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 389,
"text": "BULLET::::- \"Warnings\" are messages explaining negative events, such as heavy acid rain falling on a world and therefore causing much damage there, medical problems with previous technological breakthroughs, major enemy military movements, or a toxic gas leak on a planet that results in losing the civilian population (any ground bases remain unaffected). Enemy threats also appear here.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "51018",
"title": "Civil defense siren",
"section": "Section::::Civil defense sirens around the world.:Middle East.:Saudi Arabia.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 300,
"text": "The purpose of warnings are to notify the population of a danger that threatens their lives. Individuals must go to the shelters or their homes, lock the doors and the windows, take the appropriate protective actions, and listen through the radio and television to the instructions of civil defense.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14026762",
"title": "Intelligence dissemination management",
"section": "Section::::Dissemination of intelligence products.:Warning and current intelligence.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 33,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 33,
"end_character": 475,
"text": "In combination, indications and warning (I&W) provide alerts of potential or highly probable threat on the part of a hostile organizations. Indications may suggest preparation, such as an unusual pace of preventive maintenance, troop or supply transfers to shipping points, etc. Warnings are more immediate, such as the deployment of units, in combat formation, near national borders. Positive indications and warning may call for more specific \"news reports\" and briefings.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "59233347",
"title": "Anticipate, recognize, evaluate, control, and confirm",
"section": "Section::::The ARECC process.:Risk management.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 18,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 18,
"end_character": 432,
"text": "BULLET::::- Warnings to indicate the need for and status of control (explicitly considered in the pyramid formulation to be a distinct hierarchy option to clarity the details of any warnings being used and to emphasize the growing capabilities and availability of real time sensors and monitors; whereas in other systems, warnings are sometimes considered part of engineered controls and sometimes part of administrative controls),\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "19001051",
"title": "Narrative of the abduction phenomenon",
"section": "Section::::Less common elements.:Conference.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 86,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 86,
"end_character": 619,
"text": "Warnings are sometimes given by the entities about the possibilities of future calamity resulting from current trends in human society such as warfare and the development of weapons of mass destruction or pollution and environmental concerns. Sometimes the entities go a step farther and issue specific prophecies of future disaster. The entities often claim that they will attempt to help humanity recover in the aftermath of the prophesied calamity. At times abduction claimants have reported that specific dates were given to them for a disaster to occur yet none of these specific prophecies has ever come to pass.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14817978",
"title": "Trauma trigger",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 334,
"text": "A trigger warning is a message presented to an audience about the contents of a book or other media, to warn them that it contains potentially distressing content. Scientists with knowledge in this area and research on the topic suggest that trigger warnings may be counterproductive and actually increase anxiety and PTSD symptoms. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1430744",
"title": "Emergency population warning",
"section": "Section::::Requirements.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 263,
"text": "BULLET::::- an agreement as to who can initiate an alert. In some countries all warnings are transmitted by a single command center, while in others (such as the United States) a host of local, regional, and national agencies are authorized to initiate warnings.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
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| null |
3hkwlg | why do opera singers put so much vibrato on everything? is it the only way to get the volume they need? | [
{
"answer": "Voice major here...\n\nVibrato ensures a continuous airstream from your diaphragm. It's an easy way to keep your muscles from gumming things up in the throat/jaw area, which can change the sound. Having your muscles truly loose and relaxed while singing makes for a truer more beautiful sound, and vibrato ensures that the muscles don't mess up the airstream. It's a healthy way to sing that will preserve stamina, something opera singers need to get through 4 hours of Wagner.\n\nTrue ELI5?\n\nVibrating their voice like that forces them to keep their muscles loosey goosey, which makes singing easier and more beautiful.\n",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "Consensus among singers that I know is that the unamplified voice when projecting naturally vibrates.\n\nThat being said the amount of vibrato used is often dependent on style. For example: [baroque opera](_URL_0_) and [contemporary opera](_URL_1_) tend to use less vibrato while [bel canto](_URL_4_) and [Wagner operas](_URL_3_) tend to use more. \n\nIt also changes through history. Right now the fashion is to use less vibrato while older recordings tend to use more.\n\nWhile vibrato certainly helps project the voice, an excessive amount of vibrato is what is referred to as a \"wobble\" and is generally considered a sign of bad vocal health. \n\nI think the stereotype of opera singers with excessive vibrato comes from when [Maria Callas](_URL_2_) was older and she developed a wobble in her voice. She was perhaps the most famous opera singer of her time, so the stereotype stuck.\n\nThat and [Bugs Bunny](_URL_5_). \n\nSource: I'm a composer dating an opera singer",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "Excellent question Vivifica, I think I am in a place to answer it for you. The empirical truth is no one knows why vibrato (as opposed to a wobble or tremolo which are a sign of problems) appears by nature in the classically trained voice. We can turn it off and influence it to some extent but every voice trained to sing operatically develops vibrato. \n\nWhile we don't know exactly why, we do know that an even vibrato is a sign that the tone is being produced in a healthy manner. Singing in an 1800 seat auditorium over a sixty piece orchestra is an act on par with being an Olympic athlete and, just like those athletes, there are a number of ways to injure yourself. That vibrato you hear is a sign that everything is working efficiently. If you push air though the vocal chords with two much force, one of two opposite things happens. Either the vibrato goes away completely or it widens and slows into almost countable pulses. Either is a sign that things aren't right. \n\nThat got wordy, and I find I want to type six more paragraphs. The short answer is that vibrato is a side effect of healthy athletic singing which is expected to carry in an opera house over an orchestra. We as singers (should have said this earlier, I make my living as an opera singer) only think about vibrato when things are off. We don't add it or create it on purpose. \n",
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"answer": "Conductor here.\n\nVolume and relaxed voice are part of it, but not the number one reason. \n\nGreat orchestras work together by matching, blending, and combining frequencies. When the fit together just right (aka in tune). Vibrato is a consistently shifting cycle around a frequency, which does not blend. \n\nA soloist on any instrument must either use vibrato or amplification in order to be heard. In the 300 years of Opera productions before amplification, vocalists developed that vibrato sound that you know now as the \"Opera singer\", in order to be heard over an orchestra.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "Opera signers don't \"put vibrato on\" everything. They train the muscles related to the voice to be completely free and relaxed while simultaneously supporting the sound with a tremendous force of air (stomach is very tough). Vibrato is a result of that freedom. While you can turn vibrato on and off, turning it off involves tightening the throat to some extent, whereas turning it off involves letting everything relax. ",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Another Voice Major here:\nVibrato is caused by muscles around the vocal chords vibrating as a result of the vibrations of the vocal chords themselves. True vibrato is only achieved when the singer's arytenoids (voice box muscles) are completely relaxed.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "I'm sitting in opera rehearsal at the moment... \n\nOptimal efficiency is required for operatic singing, meaning little tension in the vocal folds. The music lies in a high range and tessituras, plus you are singing over an orchestra. \n\nVibrato results naturally when there is no tension to inhibit it, and a sufficiently fast flow of air to produce a full tone. It goes hand in hand with projecting a full, clear tone. According to Miller \"The Structure of Singing,\" it's probably caused from the pulse of your muscular nerves, like when you can't keep your hand from shaking. But no one is sure, AFAIK. \n\nOther singers today are usually amplified, and the repertoire lies in a more modest tessitura. Optimal efficiency is not required. Vibrato is thus a choice for those singers to do as they see fit. \n\nBut for opera, you usually need optimal efficiency of producing sound to hit the high notes in the upper head notes and for endurance. In opera, you sing everything. Opera is hard. ",
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"answer": "Voice major here, also knowledgable about acoustics, etc. \n\nDitto about vibrato being a sign of a relaxed singing apparatus. This is true. \n\nBut also, consider this. A varying volume, like what happens in vibrato, is acoustically identical to two tones slightly detuned from each other. It's common in electronic dance music to combine slightly detuned sounds for a \"fatter\" sound. \n\nSo basically, vibrato makes the sound fatter, psychoacoustically. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "65723",
"title": "Vibrato",
"section": "Section::::Vibrato's use in various musical genres.:In classical music.:In opera.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 27,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 27,
"end_character": 474,
"text": "Traditionally, however, the deliberate cultivation of a particularly wide, pervasive vibrato by opera singers from the Latin countries has been denounced by English-speaking music critics and pedagogues as a technical fault and a stylistic blot (see Scott, cited below, Volume 1, pp. 123–127). They have expected vocalists to emit a pure, steady stream of clear sound — irrespective of whether they were singing in church, on the concert platform, or on the operatic stage.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "22348",
"title": "Opera",
"section": "Section::::Operatic voices.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 73,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 73,
"end_character": 228,
"text": "Operatic vocal technique evolved, in a time before electronic amplification, to allow singers to produce enough volume to be heard over an orchestra, without the instrumentalists having to substantially compromise their volume.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "65723",
"title": "Vibrato",
"section": "Section::::Vibrato's use in various musical genres.:In classical music.:In opera.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 30,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 30,
"end_character": 467,
"text": "Prior to the advent of the charismatic Rubini, every well-schooled opera singer had avoided using a conspicuous and continuous vibrato because, according to Scott, it varied the pitch of the note being sung to an unacceptable degree and it was considered to be an artificial contrivance arising from inadequate breath control. British and North American press commentators and singing teachers continued to subscribe to this view long after Rubini had come and gone.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "11087960",
"title": "Squillo",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 293,
"text": "Famous singers who personify this technique include Leontyne Price, Mariella Devia, Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe di Stefano, Jussi Björling and Luciano Pavarotti. Certain dramatic singers may also employ \"squillo\" as opposed to volume over the course of a performance, for example Birgit Nilsson.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "65723",
"title": "Vibrato",
"section": "Section::::Vibrato's use in various musical genres.:In classical music.:In opera.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 35,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "There is another kind of vibrato-linked fault that can afflict the voices of operatic artists, especially aging ones—namely the slow, often irregular wobble produced when the singer's vibrato has loosened from the effects of forcing, over-parting, or the sheer wear and tear on the body caused by the stresses of a long stage career.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "65723",
"title": "Vibrato",
"section": "Section::::Typical rate and extent of vibrato.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 438,
"text": "The rate and extent of the variation in pitch during vibrato is controlled by the performer. The extent of vibrato for solo singers is usually less than a semitone (100 cents) either side of the note, while singers in a choir typically use narrower vibrato with an extent of less than a tenth of a semitone (10 cents) either side. Wind and bowed instruments generally use vibratos with an extent of less than half a semitone either side.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "162707",
"title": "Singing",
"section": "Section::::Vocal pedagogy.:Vibrato.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 81,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 81,
"end_character": 697,
"text": "Vibrato is a technique in which a sustained note wavers very quickly and consistently between a higher and a lower pitch, giving the note a slight quaver. Vibrato is the pulse or wave in a sustained tone. Vibrato occurs naturally and is the result of proper breath support and a relaxed vocal apparatus. Some studies have shown that vibrato is the result of a neuromuscular tremor in the vocal folds. In 1922 Max Schoen was the first to make the comparison of vibrato to a tremor due to change in amplitude, lack of automatic control and it being half the rate of normal muscular discharge. Some singers use vibrato as a means of expression. Many successful artists can sing a deep, rich vibrato.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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]
| null |
5r1znb | why is it that current pop songs' lyrics are repetitive verses repeated over and over, compared to the pas,t when lyrics were very diverse with different verses? | [
{
"answer": "Pop music is written around a formula that bastardizes the idea of the hook, which is the part of a song that draws you in and usually it's the part that gets stuck in your head. It's not a new idea for pop songs to just repeat the same lines over and over. It's been a popular method since the 1980s at least. Songs like Electric Boogie, Gonna Make You Sweat, Stayin' alive, etc. all depend on that initial chorus.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Essentially over the last decade our consumption habits have changed massively. Where once we'd buy full albums, listen to them from the first track to the last, examining album artwork and lyric sheets; now we download tracks. I obviously use 'we' is the collective habit sense here as that is what dictates the products that are produced. \n\nThe age of 24/7 news, instant communication and technology has caused us to be impatient. To want instantaneous gratification in the quickest, most effective form. This has become the norm so much that it has actually filtered into the songs themselves. Why wait for two verses a bridge and a build to a chorus when songs can simply come chorus-laden, no doubt remixed by a DJ on loop so that the chorus induced euphoria can be constant and unrelenting. \n\nIn esence we've become lovers of short-term, immediate pleasure, in spite of something more worthwhile, substantial and authentic. \n\nNot just in music but in every area of life. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Have you listened to The Beatles? Quite a few of their hits have repetitive lines: Love Me Do, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, All You Need is Love, Hey Jude, Yesterday. \n\nThis applies to many of the hits from the 60s and 70s. It's not something new. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "156692",
"title": "Steely Dan",
"section": "Section::::Musical and lyrical style.:Lyrics.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 70,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 70,
"end_character": 235,
"text": "Some of their lyrics are notable for their unusual meter patterns; a prime example of this is their 1972 hit \"Reelin' In the Years\", which crams an unusually large number of words into each line, giving it a highly syncopated quality.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "45404262",
"title": "Suscia",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Most of the songs have only a few verses and the majority of them are about flirting. For example, the most popular one is a ditty with only one verse called “Formiga que doi e jiquitaia”, which translates to “When an ant bite, it is jiquitaia”. This song is danced by the dancers scratching their bodies as if they have thousands of ants crawling over them. People from the area say that this dance originated one day when people were dancing on top of an ant farm and the singers noticed that people started to scratch themselves so instead of stopping the music they just incorporated to their repertoire and kept on dancing.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "25421",
"title": "Rapping",
"section": "Section::::Flow.:Rap notation and flow diagrams.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 63,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 63,
"end_character": 462,
"text": "Because rap revolves around a strong 4/4 beat, with certain syllables said in time to the beat, all the notational systems have a similar structure: they all have the same 4 beat numbers at the top of the diagram, so that syllables can be written in-line with the beat numbers. This allows devices such as rests, \"lazy tails\", flams, and other rhythmic techniques to be shown, as well as illustrating where different rhyming words fall in relation to the music.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "31502249",
"title": "Brick by Brick (Arctic Monkeys song)",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 421,
"text": "The song is intentionally brief and humorous, with Turner claiming that it was meant to include fewer than 30 words, \"since we always do songs with a thousand words\", an approach borrowed from Iggy Pop. \"Even though it is dumbed down, we know it, and it's got a sense of humor … (t)here have always been jokes all over our songs; I originally started writing lyrics to make my friends crack a smile, which is difficult.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "719165",
"title": "One Song to the Tune of Another",
"section": "Section::::Songs used.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 283,
"text": "Some of the humour derives from the incongruity caused by differences between the songs involved. They may differ wildly in genre, structure, tempo, and time signature, but unlikely combinations have sometimes worked surprisingly well. Having the same metre helps. Examples include:\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6937104",
"title": "Princess Toto",
"section": "Section::::Musical numbers.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 331,
"text": "N.B. There is no particular significance to why some songs are numbered \"9a\", \"10a\" and so on, except 1a (reprise of 1). It probably just indicates that additional songs were added after composing had begun and the scores were never renumbered to reflect it. It does not, for instance, indicate that the songs run into each other.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "280626",
"title": "Program music",
"section": "Section::::In the Western canon.:Popular music.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 40,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 40,
"end_character": 217,
"text": "Because the overwhelming majority of Western popular music is in song form, it would seem that most popular music is programmatic by nature: it has lyrics, therefore it is about something other than the music itself.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
eihsud | why is light the fastest thing in the universe and not any other wave? | [
{
"answer": "when we use light in that statement we mean the entire spectrum, not just visible light. So essentially 'radiation' is the fastest thing in the universe",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "All massless particles travel through vacuum at *c*. It's a feature of our universe's spacetime, not of the particles travelling through it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When we say light, we mean the whole spectrum of electromagnetic waves,\n\nI.e radio waves, micro waves, infra red, visible light, ultraviolet, x rays, and gamma rays.\n\nAll of them travel at the speed of light, 299792458 meters per sec, and that is the fastest possible speed to achieve.\nThat is to say, nothing can go faster than the speed of light.\n\nAs to why it is the fastest, light particles, called photons, are essentially massless.\n\nAccording to Einstein's general theory of relativity as an object moves faster it's mass increases, while it's length contracts.\nAt the speed of light, such an object will have infinite mass while it's length would be zero.\nWhich is an impossibility.\n\nSince photons are massless, and photons make up light, light can go at the speed of light.\n\n\nPlease note : Light ( all electromagnetic waves ) are dual natured. Which is to say they are expressed as having both a particulate nature as well as a wave nature.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "As it turns out, gravity travels at the speed of light which might mean that c is a property of the universe and not one of light",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The speed of light is determined by how much the stuff it is going through slows it down. When it is in a vacuum it has nothing to slow it down, so it travels as fast as possible which we call \"C\"(what you were probably thaught in school as the speed of light). \n\nFrom our current understanding of physics, \"C\" would be more accurately described as the speed of causality. It is like a speed limit on how away something is in space-time that can affect something else.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3788596",
"title": "Saga of the Skolian Empire",
"section": "Section::::Skolian Empire.:Science.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 51,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 51,
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"text": "In the abstract for her paper, \"Complex Speeds and Special Relativity,\" Asaro writes \"The quest to find faster‐than‐light particles has intrigued physicists for decades, though it has yet to turn up any real candidates. Even if a superluminal universe does exist, we have no way to reach it given that we must go through the speed of light, which to the best of our knowledge is impossible. In this paper, I show that by making speed complex, we can go around the speed of light in a manner analogous to the way a car faced with an infinitely tall road block might leave the road to go around that barrier. The treatment is a mathematical device; no known physical interpretation exists for the imaginary part of a complex speed. However, it can provide an entertaining problem in special relativity, one that may encourage students to think about the connections between equations and the physical universe.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "42127",
"title": "Christiaan Huygens",
"section": "Section::::Work in natural philosophy.:Optics.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 46,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 46,
"end_character": 830,
"text": "Huygens assumes that the speed of light is finite, as had been shown in an experiment by Olaus Roemer in 1679, but which Huygens is presumed to have already believed. The challenge for the wave theory of light at that time was to explain geometrical optics, as most physical optics phenomena (such as diffraction) had not been observed or appreciated as issues. It posits light radiating wavefronts with the common notion of light rays depicting propagation normal to those wavefronts. Propagation of the wavefronts is then explained as the result of spherical waves being emitted at every point along the wave front (the Huygens–Fresnel principle). It assumed an omnipresent ether, with transmission through perfectly elastic particles, a revision of the view of Descartes. The nature of light was therefore a longitudinal wave.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "28748",
"title": "Speed",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 365,
"text": "The fastest possible speed at which energy or information can travel, according to special relativity, is the speed of light in a vacuum \"c\" = metres per second (approximately or ). Matter cannot quite reach the speed of light, as this would require an infinite amount of energy. In relativity physics, the concept of rapidity replaces the classical idea of speed.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "31636552",
"title": "Andreas Albrecht (cosmologist)",
"section": "Section::::Work.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 243,
"text": "Along with João Magueijo, Albrecht independently proposed a model of varying speed of light cosmology which posits that the speed of light in the early universe was a trillion times faster in order to explain the horizon problem of cosmology.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "23704170",
"title": "The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report",
"section": "Section::::Synthesis.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 699,
"text": "He goes on to explain that in Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity, the rule that nothing can go faster than the speed of light, does not apply to galaxies in an expanding universe. He further explains that while that rule may apply in a preexisting static space, it does \"not\" apply in an expanding universe. In an expanding cosmic universe galaxies can travel away from each other at speeds in excess of the speed of light. As a result of this there are galaxies so far away that the light from them have not reached earth yet and therefore we don't even know they exist. Ferris refers to this phenomenon as a boundless steadily increasing and changing universe with a changing density.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5382",
"title": "Inflation (cosmology)",
"section": "Section::::Alternatives/adjuncts.:Varying \"c\".\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 100,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 100,
"end_character": 359,
"text": "Another adjunct, the varying speed of light model was offered by Jean-Pierre Petit in 1988, John Moffat in 1992, and the two-man team of Andreas Albrecht and João Magueijo in 1998. Instead of superluminal expansion the speed of light was 60 orders of magnitude faster than its current value solving the horizon and homogeneity problems in the early universe.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "28736",
"title": "Speed of light",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 742,
"text": "For many practical purposes, light and other electromagnetic waves will appear to propagate instantaneously, but for long distances and very sensitive measurements, their finite speed has noticeable effects. In communicating with distant space probes, it can take minutes to hours for a message to get from Earth to the spacecraft, or vice versa. The light seen from stars left them many years ago, allowing the study of the history of the universe by looking at distant objects. The finite speed of light also limits the theoretical maximum speed of computers, since information must be sent within the computer from chip to chip. The speed of light can be used with time of flight measurements to measure large distances to high precision.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
2z507y | What was European cooking like before the introduction of Asian spices? | [
{
"answer": "While you wait for more qualified people to answer, here's a section of the FAQ that may tide you over:\n\n_URL_5_\n\n\nAlso, you'll need to be a little more specific about time frame and/or location within Europe, as well as which level of society you're asking about. My understanding is that in 12th-century England and northern France, for the lower classes, they ate a mostly vegetarian diet of barley, rye, beans, and leafy vegetables like kale and spinach. Herbs like rosemary, lavender, basil, sage, thyme, and garlic were all available through foraging. People also ate flowers, something we don't do much nowadays. People drank water, small beer (produced on a household level, often by women), cider, mead, and whey. Meat was rare, especially beef since cows needed a lot of food. Pork was relatively common since people could let their pigs wander and feed in the woods for most of the year. Hunting and fishing were tightly regulated by the local lord, who also usually had a monopoly on millstones and ovens for making bread. Overall their diet was pretty good, lots of high quality protein and fiber.\n\nReading you may be interested in:\n\n[Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society](_URL_0_) (Examines cultural attitudes toward food.)\n\n[Food in Medieval Times](_URL_4_) (More focused on what was generally available to the average person.)\n\n[The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages](_URL_3_) (This is more focused on the upper classes.)\n\nEDIT: Here is some information concerning [forest laws](_URL_1_) and [charters of free-warren](_URL_2_), which should help cast some light on the kinds of restrictions that common people faced in finding food.\n\nAlso, as mentioned below, I forgot to say that dairy in general was pretty important. It was a good source of nutrition, especially since cheese keeps forever. Cows were generally more valuable alive and producing milk than dead and eaten.",
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"answer": "Half of getting a good answer is how you ask the question.\n\nThere was never a wall between Europe, Asia, and Africa. The various seas and gulfs were more like highways than barriers. Mesopotamia and East Africa traded with the Indus and Saraswati river valleys before history. Southern Europe traded with North Africa. The Bell Beaker folk came out of the Mediterranean and settled the Atlantic coasts, even unto Britain, while penetrating deeply into modern France. They foreshadowed the later spread of the Phoenicians/Carthaginians.\n\nDid spices travel along these trade routes? We know the Greek states supported a huge trade in expensive silphium from Africa, and one of the few Sumerian-based words in English is \"cumin.\" (Via Akkadian, Greek, Latin). Cumin originated in the Eastern Mediterranean and was traded & eventually grown as far as India, and into Europe.\n\n(Silphium is an unknown bitter/hot herb that later fell out of cultivation or became extinct. The flavour has been likened to horseradish or asafoetida.)\n\nSo, \"before Asian spices\" is really prehistoric, and archaeologists can tell you what people were eating from what the paleobotanists identify.\n\nThat being said, I think what you're trying to ask is something like, \"before the spice trade I heard of in school, that happened in the Renaissance, in the Middle Ages (or at least early Middle Ages), what was eating in Europe like? What tastes did they have?\"\n\nAs pointed out, that depends on where in Europe you are, and what your income is.\n\nIf you're a fisherman, you eat more fish than an inland farmer, and you also get shellfish, and even have edible seaweeds. Your cash crop is salt fish, sold inland and to the cities, especially once the Christian business of Lent settles into the culture. You catch fish and you boil out your own salt. On the other hand, the pagan Britons didn't eat fish, apparently through taboo.\n\nYour poor peasant farmer doesn't eat anything he doesn't grow or forage in the woods. But that's quite a bit! The list from fyreNL is good, because onions are a big flavour boost. The average peasant ate them like apples, just peel them and bite in. \n\nWitch trials often list what was served at supposed midnight feasts, and they amount to a peasant's idea of good things. Most notable is that butter is served in big hunks and eaten, not as a thin spread on bread, but in quantities like it was a soft cheese. The meat your peasant eats is probably bacon, the current flitch hung in the chimney to keep it smoked, the rest out in the smoke house. This is added to the daily soup, so it adds a smoky/salty flavour to the collection of beans and greens in the pot. \n\nOnce late in the year was the big hog slaughter, and they made blood sausage and head cheese, black broth and chitlins, and undoubtedly roasted the pig's ears like some of my neighbors do. No middle or upper class person would eat this, or record this, but I can't imagine it being let go to waste.\n\nSoup is what your peasant lives on.\n\n \"Soupe la soir, soupe le matin,\n\n C'est l'ordinaire du bon chretien.\"\n\n (\"Soup in the evening, and soup in the morning,\n\n Is the everyday food of a good Christian.\")\n\n(and notice that they eat basically two meals a day.) Another rhyming proverb:\n\n \"Lever a six, diner a dix,\n\n Souper a six, coucher a dix,\n\n Fait vivre l'homme dix fois dix.\"\n\n (\"To rise at six, dine at ten,\n\n Sup at six, to bed at ten,\n\n Makes man live ten times ten.\")\n\nSoup is important, because it is boiled water, and safe to drink. They did not value the thick stew, as a result. They needed to rehydrate.\n\n > As the Gauls, according to Athenaeus, generally ate their meat boiled, we must presume that they made soup with the water in which it was cooked. It is related that one day Gregory of Tours was sitting at the table of King Chilperic, when the latter offered him a soup specially made in his honour from chicken. The poems of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries mention soups made of peas, of bacon, of vegetables, and of groats. In the southern provinces there were soups made of almonds, and of olive oil. When Du Gueselin went out to fight the English knight William of Blancbourg in single combat, he first ate three sorts of soup made with wine, \"in honour of the three persons in the Holy Trinity.\"\n",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "14643",
"title": "History of Indonesia",
"section": "Section::::Colonial era.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 53,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 53,
"end_character": 528,
"text": "Beginning in the 16th century, successive waves of Europeans—the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British—sought to dominate the spice trade at its sources in India and the 'Spice Islands' (Maluku) of Indonesia. This meant finding a way to Asia to cut out Muslim merchants who, with their Venetian outlet in the Mediterranean, monopolised spice imports to Europe. Astronomically priced at the time, spices were highly coveted not only to preserve and make poorly preserved meat palatable, but also as medicines and magic potions.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "63125",
"title": "Veracruz",
"section": "Section::::Culture.:Gastronomy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 90,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 90,
"end_character": 787,
"text": "After the conquest and during the colonial period, many other spices and ingredients were brought and have had a greater influence in the cooking here than in other parts of the country. From Europe, the Spanish brought saffron, parsley, thyme, marjoram, bay laurel, and cilantro as well Asian spices such as cloves, cinnamon, and black pepper. The Spaniards also brought wheat, rice, almonds, olives and olive oil, garlic, and capers. The latter three are essential ingredients in what is perhaps the most famous specialty of the region, huachinango a la veracruzana, red snapper in a spicy tomato sauce. Caribbean imports such as sugar cane and pineapple were adapted as well as the peanut, brought from Africa by the Portuguese (although the peanut is originally from South America).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "26897",
"title": "Spice",
"section": "Section::::History.:Middle Ages.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 906,
"text": "Spices were all imported from plantations in Asia and Africa, which made them expensive. From the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the Middle East, and along with it the neighboring Italian maritime republics and city-states. The trade made the region rich. It has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the Late Middle Ages. The value of these goods was the equivalent of a yearly supply of grain for 1.5 million people. The most exclusive was saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor. Spices that have now fallen into obscurity in European cuisine include grains of paradise, a relative of cardamom which mostly replaced pepper in late medieval north French cooking, long pepper, mace, spikenard, galangal and cubeb.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1769393",
"title": "African cuisine",
"section": "Section::::North Africa.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 32,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 32,
"end_character": 351,
"text": "From the 7th century onwards, the Arabs introduced a variety of spices, like saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves, which contributed and influenced the culinary culture of North Africa. The Ottoman Turks brought sweet pastries and other bakery products, and from the New World, North Africa got potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini and chili peppers.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "10928780",
"title": "Early modern European cuisine",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 602,
"text": "The discovery of the New World, the establishment of new trade routes with Asia and increased foreign influences from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East meant that Europeans became familiarized with a multitude of new foodstuffs. Spices that previously had been prohibitively expensive luxuries, such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger, soon became available to the majority population, and the introduction of new plants coming from the New World and India like maize, potato, sweet potato, chili pepper, cocoa, vanilla, tomato, coffee, and tea transformed European cuisine forever. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "52105060",
"title": "European colonisation of Southeast Asia",
"section": "Section::::Early phase.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 591,
"text": "Central among the various plannings was to establish direct and permanent trade of the highly priced spices, that were native to Southeast Asia, included pepper, cloves, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon. Competition among the various nations was fierce and violence commonplace in order to secure exclusive access to the centers of production. Eventually, the Dutch and the Spanish wrestled control of it from the Portuguese in the 17th century. In the 18th century, the British, who became increasingly engaged in Southeast Asia over their interests in India, gained control of it from the Dutch.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "56380580",
"title": "Post - 1500 Southeast Asia Archaeology",
"section": "Section::::European colonization of Southeast Asia.:The Silk Road Trade.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 562,
"text": "The 15th to 17th centuries was a time known as the “age of discovery” in Southeast Asia because of the recognition and demand of SE Asia's natural resources from European powers. In SE Asia, spices were useful and popular for creating flavor in food. Spices were in high demand and were imported and exported through the Silk Road, which flourished during the colonization period. It included black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, and cloves, nutmeg, etc. Nutmeg was the most popular and most expensive to get because of how scarce it was.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
2kqufd | Why do women have 2 ovaries? Why can't there be just one ovary? | [
{
"answer": "The same question can e asked of why men have two testicles - the are developmentally synonymous. Procreation is the fundamental root of evolutionary biology, thus our ancestors with two gonads were likely more successful in reporducing",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "22710",
"title": "Ovary",
"section": "Section::::Other animals.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 36,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 36,
"end_character": 454,
"text": "Birds have only one functional ovary (the left), while the other remains vestigial. Ovaries in females are analogous to testes in males, in that they are both gonads and endocrine glands. Ovaries of some kind are found in the female reproductive system of many animals that employ sexual reproduction, including invertebrates. However, they develop in a very different way in most invertebrates than they do in vertebrates, and are not truly homologous.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "22710",
"title": "Ovary",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 527,
"text": "The ovary is an organ found in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on the left and right sides of the body. The ovaries also secrete hormones that play a role in the menstrual cycle and fertility. The ovary progresses through many stages beginning in the prenatal period through menopause. It is also an endocrine gland because of the various hormones that it secretes.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "22710",
"title": "Ovary",
"section": "Section::::Structure.:Ligaments.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 440,
"text": "The ovaries lie within the peritoneal cavity, on either side of the uterus, to which they are attached via a fibrous cord called the ovarian ligament. The ovaries are uncovered in the peritoneal cavity but are tethered to the body wall via the suspensory ligament of the ovary which is a posterior extension of the broad ligament of the uterus. The part of the broad ligament of the uterus that covers the ovary is known as the mesovarium.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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},
{
"wikipedia_id": "22710",
"title": "Ovary",
"section": "Section::::Structure.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 438,
"text": "The ovaries are considered the female gonads. Each ovary is whitish in color and located alongside the lateral wall of the uterus in a region called the ovarian fossa. The ovarian fossa is the region that is bounded by the external iliac artery and in front of the ureter and the internal iliac artery. This area is about 4 cm x 3 cm x 2 cm in size. The ovaries are surrounded by a capsule, and have an outer cortex and an inner medulla.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "43198",
"title": "Onychophora",
"section": "Section::::Anatomy.:Reproduction.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 29,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 29,
"end_character": 2283,
"text": "Both sexes possess pairs of gonads, opening via a channel called a gonoduct into a common genital opening, the gonopore, which is located on the rear ventral side. Both the gonads and the gonoduct are derived from true coelom tissue. In females, the two ovaries are joined in the middle and to the horizontal diaphragm. The gonoduct appears differently depending on whether the species is live-bearing or egg-laying. In the former, each exit channel divides into a slender oviduct and a roomy \"womb\", the uterus, in which the embryos develop. The single vagina, to which both uteri are connected, runs outward to the gonopore. In egg-laying species, whose gonoduct is uniformly constructed, the genital opening lies at the tip of a long egg-laying apparatus, the ovipositor. The females of many species also possess a sperm repository called the receptacle seminis, in which sperm cells from males can be stored temporarily or for longer periods. Males possess two separate testes, along with the corresponding sperm vesicle (the vesicula seminalis) and exit channel (the vasa efferentia). The two vasa efferentia unite to a common sperm duct, the vas deferens, which in turn widens through the ejaculatory channel to open at the gonopore. Directly beside or behind this lie two pairs of special glands, which probably serve an auxiliary reproductive function; the rearmost glands are also known as anal glands. A penis-like structure has so far been found only in males of the genus \"Paraperipatus\" but has not yet been observed in action. There are different mating procedures involved. In some the males deposit their spermatophore directly into the female's genitals opening, while others deposits it on the female's body, where the cuticle will collapse and allowing the sperm cells to migrate into the female. There are also Australian species where the male place their spermatophore on top of their head, which is then pressed against the female's genitals. In these species the head have elaborate structures like spikes, spines, hollow stylets, pits, and depressions, whose purpose is to either hold the sperm and/or assist in the sperm transfer to the female. The males of most species also secrete a pheromone from glands on the underside of the legs to attract females.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "3449340",
"title": "Ovary (botany)",
"section": "Section::::Classification based on position.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 279,
"text": "The terminology of the positions of ovaries is determined by the insertion point, where the other floral parts (perianth and androecium) come together and attach to the surface of the ovary. If the ovary is situated above the insertion point, it is superior; if below, inferior.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "88003",
"title": "Menstrual cycle",
"section": "Section::::Cycles and phases.:Ovarian cycle.:Ovulation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 68,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 68,
"end_character": 230,
"text": "Which of the two ovaries—left or right—ovulates appears essentially random; no known left and right co-ordination exists. Occasionally, both ovaries will release an egg; if both eggs are fertilized, the result is fraternal twins.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
wze97 | What was the mainstream Roman take on the god of the Judeans? | [
{
"answer": "The average Roman didn't think much of Judaism, because they didn't think of them at all. Among those who actually cared about such matters, Judaism was likely seen as another weird Eastern cult, but with respectable venerability. Jews themselves had a poor reputation, at least going by Tacitus, who stereotyped them as bandits, essentially. However, I should note that this is not particularly unusual of Tacitus, who was pretty grumpy.\n\nEDIT: I should probably provide quotes. Two lengthy Tacitus quotes, followed by a quick Juvenal and a Varro that is quite interesting:\n\nGreat, irrelevant quote from Tacitus: \"This force was accompanied by twenty cohorts of allied troops and eight squadrons of cavalry, by the two kings Agrippa and Sohemus, by the auxiliary forces of king Antiochus, by a strong contingent of Arabs, who hated the Jews with the usual hatred of neighbors...\" Some things don't change. More relevant quotes:\n\nTacitus (again) \n\n > \"Moses, wishing to secure for the future his authority over the nation, gave them a novel form of worship, opposed to all that is practised by other men. Things sacred with us, with them have no sanctity, while they allow what with us is forbidden. In their holy place they have consecrated an image of the animal by whose guidance they found deliverance from their long and thirsty wanderings. They slay the ram, seemingly in derision of Hammon, and they sacrifice the ox, because the Egyptians worship it as Apis. They abstain from swine's flesh, in consideration of what they suffered when they were infected by the leprosy to which this animal is liable. [etc]\"\n\nMore pointedly,\n\n > This worship, however introduced, is upheld by its antiquity; all their other customs, which are at once perverse and disgusting, owe their strength to their very badness. The most degraded out of other races, scorning their national beliefs, brought to them their contributions and presents. This augmented the wealth of the Jews, as also did the fact, that among themselves they are inflexibly honest and ever ready to shew compassion, though they regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies. They sit apart at meals, they sleep apart, and though, as a nation, they are singularly prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; among themselves nothing is unlawful. Circumcision was adopted by them as a mark of difference from other men. Those who come over to their religion adopt the practice, and have this lesson first instilled into them, to despise all gods, to disown their country, and set at nought parents, children, and brethren. Still they provide for the increase of their numbers. It is a crime among them to kill any newly-born infant. They hold that the souls of all who perish in battle or by the hands of the executioner are immortal. Hence a passion for propagating their race and a contempt for death. They are wont to bury rather than to burn their dead, following in this the Egyptian cus tom; they bestow the same care on the dead, and they hold the same belief about the lower world. Quite different is their faith about things divine. The Egyptians worship many animals and images of monstrous form; the Jews have purely mental conceptions of Deity, as one in essence. They call those profane who make representations of God in human shape out of perishable materials. They believe that Being to be supreme and eternal, neither capable of representation, nor of decay. They therefore do not allow any images to stand in their cities, much less in their temples. This flattery is not paid to their kings, nor this honour to our Emperors. From the fact, however, that their priests used to chant to the music of flutes and cymbals, and to wear garlands of ivy, and that a golden vine was found in the temple, some have thought that they worshipped father Liber, the conqueror of the East, though their institutions do not by any means harmonize with the theory; for Liber established a festive and cheerful worship, while the Jewish religion is tasteless and mean.\n\nFrom Juvenal (VI.542-547):\n\n > No sooner has that fellow departed than a palsied Jewess, leaving her basket and her truss of hay,[68] comes begging to her secret ear; she is an interpreter of the laws of Jerusalem, a high priestess of the tree,[69] a trusty go-between of highest heaven. She, too, fills her palm, but more sparingly, for a Jew will tell you dreams of any kind you please for the minutest of coins.\n\nBy Juvenal's standards, that is fairly tame. I think that sums up the \"weird eastern cult\" aspect.\n\nVarro's opinion was rather higher. Transmitted through Augustine:\n\n > For more than 170 years, the Romans of old worshipped the gods without an image. If this practice had remained down to the present day’, he [Varro] says, ‘the gods would have been worshipped with greater purity’ (castius dii observarentur). In support of thisopinion, he cites, among other things, the testimony of the Jewish nation\n\n > (frg. 18Cardauns; Aug.,The City of God 4.31).\n\nAdd that to the long list of why I want to read Varro's *Divine Antiquities*.",
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"answer": "Rome was a hodgepodge of religions, and most people didn't care who you worshipped in private as long as your publicly paid lip service to the official state religion of Jupiter and the like. \n\nJudaism was seen as just another such religion. Many roman soldiers converted to middle eastern religions during wars there and spread them around the empire.\n\nBut where Judaism ran into problems was that it mingles government and religion. Their king was chosen by god, so pledging loyalty to another leader and religion was tantamount to blasphemy, which led to plenty of political problems for both sides. Hence Jesus' call to render unto caesar what is due or however that passage goes. \n\nThis also explains why christianity was pretty much ignored and tolerated when it was still a small religion; it was just another cult. But when it became large enough and its followers refused to publicly worship the traditional roman gods, they clashed with the government. ",
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "25916553",
"title": "Religion in Rome",
"section": "Section::::Classical period.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 920,
"text": "The \"Religio Romana\" (literally, the \"Roman Religion\") constituted the major religion of the city in antiquity. The first gods held sacred by the Romans were Jupiter, the most high, and Mars, god of war, and father of Rome's twin founders, Romulus and Remus, according to tradition. The goddess Vesta became an important part of the Roman Pantheon at an early stage of the Roman Monarchy. The goddess Diana joined Roman Pantheon during the Monarchy times as the central goddess uniting worship between Rome and several of its neighbors, thus creating the basis for a coalition. The goddess Juno was imported to Rome from the ancient city of Veii, after Veii fell to the Roman military, following a long period of wars between the two cities, during the time of the Roman Republic. Other gods and goddesses were honored in Rome and added to the Pantheon throughout the Monarchy and Republic periods. See Livy, Books 1-5.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "27939399",
"title": "Pilate's court",
"section": "Section::::Gospel Narrative.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 752,
"text": "As the religions professed by the Jews (Second Temple Judaism) and the Romans (Religion in ancient Rome) were different, and since at the time Jerusalem was part of Roman Judea, the charges of the Sanhedrin against Jesus held no power before Pilate. From the three charges brought by the Jewish leaders (perverting the nation, forbidding the payment of tribute, and sedition against the Roman Empire), Pilate picks up on the third one, asking: \"Are you the King of the Jews?\" Jesus replies with \"You have said so\". Then the hearing continues, and Pilate finally asks Jesus \"\" This was said after learning that Jesus did not wish to claim any terrestrial kingdom. He was therefore not a political threat and could be seen as innocent of such a charge. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "34307490",
"title": "Michael Voris",
"section": "Section::::Relationship with the Catholic hierarchy.:Views on Other Religions.:Judaism.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 36,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 36,
"end_character": 2109,
"text": "In a video titled \"The Jews\", Voris explained his interpretation on supersessionism, saying that the Jewish faith in ancient times \"had a temple and offered sacrifice; the entire religion was focused on this one singular point. … Once however the Romans were done with their work, the Jews as the religion of the Covenant no longer existed. … No temple, no sacrifices, no priesthood, no Judaism. What replaced it in history is what has come down to us today: Rabbinical Judaism. This is NOT the Judaism of the Covenant. It is a man-made religion. ...the promise of [the Abrahamic] Covenant is fulfilled in the Catholic Church. We are the continuation of Israel. ...[Thanks to the work of Jesus] the worship was now made complete in the sacrifice of the Mass, the Holy Eucharist. This is why nothing was lost in the sense of the Covenant when Jerusalem was destroyed. It's not so much that the Covenant was switched to a new group, it's much more the case that only a few former members of the Covenant stayed faithful. The vast majority rejected the Covenant, as is highlighted [as told in John 19:15] when their leaders scream out, 'We have no king but Caesar!' The Covenant was continued in the few Jews who remained faithful to it by recognizing the Messiah. Then God added to their number a multiplicity of Gentiles. The Covenant was never abandoned by God. It was abandoned by the overwhelming number of people called to it, and it is continued today in the Catholic Church. We have a priesthood, THE sacrifice, THE Temple. And that is because Judaism is built on waiting for a Messiah who will come to institute his reign – that happened two thousand years ago. The Jews who accepted Him became the Church, the Jews who rejected Him – having voted themselves out of the Covenant – went off and started a man-made religion. Rabbinical Judaism, today's Jewish religion, is to authentic Judaism what Protestantism is to Catholicism. Looks a lot like it sometimes but at its core it's very different.\" Voris went on to equate modern Judaism with Protestantism, labeling both religions originating with man.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "8814638",
"title": "Anti-Judaism",
"section": "Section::::Pre-Christian Roman Empire.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 588,
"text": "In Ancient Rome, religion was an integral part of the civil government (see Religion in ancient Rome). Beginning with the Roman Senate's declaration of the divinity of Julius Caesar on 1 January 42 BC, some Emperors were proclaimed gods on Earth, and demanded to be worshiped accordingly throughout the Roman Empire. This created religious difficulties for monotheistic Jews and worshipers of Mithras, Sabazius and Early Christians. Jews were prohibited by their biblical commandments from worshiping any other god than that of the Torah (see Shema, God in Judaism, Idolatry in Judaism).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "25458",
"title": "Rome",
"section": "Section::::Religion.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 88,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 88,
"end_character": 1089,
"text": "Much like the rest of Italy, Rome is predominantly Roman Catholic, and the city has been an important centre of religion and pilgrimage for centuries, the base of the ancient Roman religion with the pontifex maximus and later the seat of the Vatican and the pope. Before the arrival of the Christians in Rome, the Religio Romana (literally, the \"Roman Religion\") was the major religion of the city in classical antiquity. The first gods held sacred by the Romans were Jupiter, the most high, and Mars, god of war, and father of Rome's twin founders, Romulus and Remus, according to tradition. Other gods and goddesses such as Vesta and Minerva were honoured. Rome was also the base of several mystery cults, such as Mithraism. Later, after St Peter and St Paul were martyred in the city, and the first Christians began to arrive, Rome became Christian, and the Old St. Peter's Basilica was constructed in 313 AD. Despite some interruptions (such as the Avignon papacy), Rome has for centuries been the home of the Roman Catholic Church and the Bishop of Rome, otherwise known as the Pope.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "521555",
"title": "Ancient Rome",
"section": "Section::::Culture.:Religion.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 166,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 166,
"end_character": 936,
"text": "Archaic Roman religion, at least concerning the gods, was made up not of written narratives, but rather of complex interrelations between gods and humans. Unlike in Greek mythology, the gods were not personified, but were vaguely defined sacred spirits called \"numina\". Romans also believed that every person, place or thing had its own \"genius\", or divine soul. During the Roman Republic, Roman religion was organized under a strict system of priestly offices, which were held by men of senatorial rank. The College of Pontifices was uppermost body in this hierarchy, and its chief priest, the \"Pontifex Maximus\", was the head of the state religion. Flamens took care of the cults of various gods, while augurs were trusted with taking the auspices. The sacred king took on the religious responsibilities of the deposed kings. In the Roman Empire, emperors were deified, and the formalized imperial cult became increasingly prominent.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "9961",
"title": "Epistle to the Romans",
"section": "Section::::The churches in Rome.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 30,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 30,
"end_character": 549,
"text": "At this time, the Jews made up a substantial number in Rome, and their synagogues, frequented by many, enabled the Gentiles to become acquainted with the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Consequently, churches composed of both Jews and Gentiles were formed at Rome. According to Irenaeus, a 2nd-century Church Father, the church at Rome was founded directly by the apostles Peter and Paul. However, many modern scholars disagree with Irenaeus, holding that while little is known of the circumstances of the church's founding, it was not founded by Paul:\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
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}
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| null |
1h9pjc | What would happen if we started pumping huge amounts of water into the middle of the Sahara Desert? | [
{
"answer": "For an understanding of how to do this and make it work, ie keep the water--in this case seas water--there and grow things with it, see the [Sahara Forest Project](_URL_0_). Their proposals involve using solar power to desalinize sea water, that would then be used to grow crops and trees, initially in an onsite greenhouse, and later outside around the facility. They opened a pilot site in Qatar last year to test the system.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Related question, are there deserts which are dry because they dissipate moisture particularly quickly, or are all deserts dry because they receive little rainfall?",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "34519215",
"title": "Qattara Depression Project",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 271,
"text": "The first person to suggest flooding large parts of the Sahara desert was the writer Jules Verne in his book \"Invasion of the Sea\". Plans to use the Qattara Depression for the generation of electricity reportedly date back to 1912 from Berlin geographer Albrecht Penck. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8104",
"title": "Desertification",
"section": "Section::::Causes by loss.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 23,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 23,
"end_character": 375,
"text": "Scientists agree that the existence of a desert in the place where the Sahara desert is now located is due to a natural climate cycle; this cycle often causes a lack of water in the area from time to time. There is a suggestion that the last time that the Sahara was converted from savanna to desert it was partially due to overgrazing by the cattle of the local population.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "318980",
"title": "Endorheic basin",
"section": "Section::::Occurrence.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 668,
"text": "In deserts, water inflow is low and loss to solar evaporation high, drastically reducing the formation of complete drainage systems. Closed water flow areas often lead to the concentration of salts and other minerals in the basin. Minerals leached from the surrounding rocks are deposited in the basin, and left behind when the water evaporates. Thus endorheic basins often contain extensive salt pans (also called salt flats, salt lakes, alkali flats, dry lake beds or playas). These areas tend to be large, flat hardened surfaces and are sometimes used for aviation runways or land speed record attempts, because of their extensive areas of perfectly level terrain.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "59338634",
"title": "African humid period",
"section": "Section::::Implications for future global warming.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 200,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 200,
"end_character": 359,
"text": "A greening of the Sahara on the one hand may allow agriculture and pastoralism to expand into hitherto unsuitable areas, but increased precipitation can also lead to increased water borne diseases and flooding. Also, expanded human activity may be vulnerable to climate reversals as demonstrated by the droughts that followed the mid-20th century wet period.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "34519215",
"title": "Qattara Depression Project",
"section": "Section::::Location.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 729,
"text": "The Qattara depression is a region that lies 60 m below sea level on average and is currently a vast, uninhabited desert. By connecting the region and the Mediterranean Sea with tunnels and/or canals, water could be let into the area. The inflowing water would then evaporate quickly because of the desert climate. This way a continuous flow of water could be created if inflow and evaporation were balanced out. With this continuously flowing water, hydroelectricity could be generated. Eventually, this would result in a hypersaline lake or a salt pan as the water evaporates and leaves the salt it contains behind. This would return the Qattara Depression to its current state but with its sabkha soils tens of meters higher.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "40706137",
"title": "Gaza–Egypt border",
"section": "Section::::Buffer zone by Egypt.:2013–15 Egyptian demolition of homes and smuggling tunnels.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 28,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 28,
"end_character": 787,
"text": "On 11 September 2015, the Egyptian army began to pump water from the Mediterranean Sea into the tunnels. According to the Egyptian president Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, flooding of the tunnels had been carried out in coordination with the Palestinian Authority. A number of Palestinian factions condemned the flooding of the border with sea water, because it posed a serious threat to environment and ground water. In November 2015, indeed large areas of soil collapsed as a result of the flooding, threatening Gazan homes in Rafah near the Saladin Gate. Salty water flew out from the ground, contaminating the soil and make it unusable for agriculture. The seawater further damages the natural aquifers, \"already depleted by the Israelis, who dig wells thousands of metres deeper than ours,”.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "17802",
"title": "Geography of Libya",
"section": "Section::::Environmental issues.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 68,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 68,
"end_character": 230,
"text": "desertification; very limited natural fresh water resources; the Great Manmade River Project, the largest water development scheme in the world, is being built to bring water from large aquifers under the Sahara to coastal cities\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
60c3nn | if a room temperature object is left in outer space for an hour, would it come back colder, warmer, or the same temperature? | [
{
"answer": "Heat is also transferred by radiation, which does not require a medium (particles, like air/water/etc). Your object in space would radiate heat and start to cool, but you also have to account for incoming radiation (from the Sun, for one example). So, your answer depends quite a lot on where you put the object. If the object is radiating more heat than it's receiving, it will get colder.",
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"answer": "Matter actually emits electromagnetic radiation based on its temperature, usually in accordance with what's called the [black body spectrum](_URL_1_). This is why you can measure/\"see\" temperature using an infrared camera. Hotter things emit more light and different colors, which is why metal glows red (initially) when hot, and it also determines the colors of stars.\n\nSo, if you place an object in space where it can't change it's temperature by interacting with other matter, it will *probably* cool down. However, light from everything else in space that hits it will also heat it up, so at some point the amount of heat it's losing will balance with what it's gaining.\n\nIn fact, while I am not entirely sure, this temperature will probably be governed by the [\"cosmic microwave background radiation\"](_URL_0_), which is basically the ambient temperature of the universe.\n\nIn any case, this process will take a long time, as something at room temperature won't lose heat very quickly.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "Heat transfer through matter, either conduction, or convection with fluids, while it is the quickest way for something to lose heat, is not the only way.\n\nHeat can also radiate off of an object, in the form of essentially light (misleadingly radiators actually heat rooms mostly by convection). Radiation doesn't require anything for heat to transfer to, since that heat energy is in the form electromagnetic radiation (you can think of it as photons) and that can travel in a perfect vacuum.\n\nSo the lack of a medium is not necessarily a perfect insulator - if it's not gaining any by other means, your object in space will gradually lose heat by emitting EM.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "72536",
"title": "Thermal conduction",
"section": "Section::::Overview.:Transient conduction.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 19,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 19,
"end_character": 277,
"text": "If changes in external temperatures or internal heat generation changes are too rapid for the equilibrium of temperatures in space to take place, then the system never reaches a state of unchanging temperature distribution in time, and the system remains in a transient state.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "33097721",
"title": "Collections care",
"section": "Section::::Environmental conditions.:Temperature.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 457,
"text": "Human comfort levels must also be considered. Storage areas can often get away with slightly lower temperatures than display areas since they are not accessed as often, and it is most likely that those who do enter the space will be prepared for the conditions. In galleries, however, viewers must feel comfortable enough with the temperature to spend time there, otherwise the collection will simply not be viewed and lose its purpose in being on display.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "3545917",
"title": "Masonry oven",
"section": "Section::::Construction.:Thermodynamics of insulating masonry ovens.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 584,
"text": "Here on earth, the sun delivers lots of bounce, and the atmosphere surrounds it with a wall that reflects the energy back in. In outer space, however, there’s nothing — a vacuum — and the bounce all disappears very quickly, leaving very little moving. Lack of motion means little heat, and almost no transfer — very cold. Closer to home, if you wrap your hot coffee in a thermos — a hollow cylinder with all the air sucked out of it — there’s also very little in the way of excitable particles to move the energy from your hot coffee to the cold air around it. Your coffee stays hot.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "47463",
"title": "Thermosphere",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 622,
"text": "The highly diluted gas in this layer can reach during the day. Despite the high temperature, an observer or object will experience cold temperatures in the thermosphere, because the extremely low density of gas (practically a hard vacuum) is insufficient for the molecules to conduct heat. A normal thermometer will read significantly below , at least at night, because the energy lost by thermal radiation would exceed the energy acquired from the atmospheric gas by direct contact. In the anacoustic zone above , the density is so low that molecular interactions are too infrequent to permit the transmission of sound. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1866599",
"title": "Passive house",
"section": "Section::::Traits of passive houses.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 73,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 73,
"end_character": 381,
"text": "BULLET::::- Homogeneous interior temperature: it is impossible to have single rooms (e.g. the sleeping rooms) at a different temperature from the rest of the house. Note that the relatively high temperature of the sleeping areas is physiologically not considered desirable by some building scientists. Bedroom windows can be cracked open slightly to alleviate this when necessary.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1131934",
"title": "Art exhibition",
"section": "Section::::Preservation issues.:Environmental concerns of the exhibition space.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 27,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 27,
"end_character": 660,
"text": "For preservation purposes, cooler temperatures are always recommended. The temperature of the display space should not exceed 72 °F. A lower temperature of down to 50 °F can be considered safe for a majority of objects. The maximum acceptable variation in this range is 5 °F, meaning that the temperature should not go above 77 °F and below 45 °F. As temperature and relative humidity are interdependent, temperature should be reasonably constant so that relative humidity can be maintained as well. Controlling the environment with 24-hour air conditioning and dehumidification is the most effective way of protecting an exhibition from serious fluctuations.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6890573",
"title": "Liquid cooling and ventilation garment",
"section": "Section::::Space applications.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 22,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 22,
"end_character": 554,
"text": "Because the space environment is essentially a vacuum, heat cannot be lost through heat convection, and can only be directly dissipated through thermal radiation, a much slower process. Thus, even though the environment of space can be extremely cold, excessive heat build-up is inevitable. Without an LCVG, there would be no means by which to expel this heat, and it would affect not only EVA performance, but the health of the suit occupant as well. The LCVG used with the Apollo/Skylab A7L suit could remove heat at a rate of approximately 586 watts.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
hy2y5 | Is there such a thing as being "in the zone" or "having momentum" in sports? | [
{
"answer": "There is a psychology term known as [Flow](_URL_0_)\n\n > Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.[1]\n\n > According to Csíkszentmihályi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task[2] although flow is also described (below) as a deep focus on nothing but the activity - not even oneself or one's emotions.\n\n > Colloquial terms for this or similar mental states include: to be on the ball, in the moment, present, in the zone, wired in, in the groove, or keeping your head in the game.\n\nWhether there are hormonal changes going on is something I can't help you with but it seems likely.",
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"answer": "It has to be statistically inevitable to some degree.",
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"answer": "While **I'm no expert**, I am a sportsman, and I have found myself 'in the zone' a number of times. *My best guess* as to what it is is a combination of good focus and letting your muscle memory do its job. \n \nMuscle memory is the effect where if you repeat an action over and over, it strengthens the neural pathways involved in performing that action, so eventually it becomes second nature, a subconscious action (like riding a bike or even just walking). \nAs far as good focus goes, *I'd guess that* if all you're concentrating on is the task at hand, your mind is free to concentrate on that specific set of actions, and so can perform them to the best of its ability. Also, chances are as you focus more and more, it forms a self reinforcing loop, where your success reinforces the fact you're doing it right, so you continue what you're doing, as well as causing your brain to release endorphins, making you feel good.\n \nHowever, I feel like I'm missing something important, both because when I'm in the zone it feels so much more than just concentration and muscle memory, like I'm performing well above what my skill level suggests I should be, though that could be all in my head. \nFurthermore, it doesn't explain how you can get 'in the zone' for something like chess, or snooker, or even just studying. \n \nAs an aside, it is hypothesized that when people choke under pressure, it's because they concentrate too hard on what they're doing, overriding their muscle memory, which does a far better job of controlling your body than 'manual control'.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "I recall watching a documentary on discovery channel about the human body. It mentioned Adrenaline (AKA epinephrine) and how our body uses it in important heart pounding situations. The documentary stated that it allows our brain to process twice as fast, almost living in slow-mo. I cannot find any evidence to support this other than my own experiences noticing a difference in how much I pay attention to my surroundings.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "I'm not an expert in this area of science but I was an elite athlete and can certainly attest to being in vs out of the zone. I would describe it best as being in a good mental place without distractions and excellent focus. Being able to continue a certain technique or strategy is good and having to change up is difficult. ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "564387",
"title": "Flow (psychology)",
"section": "Section::::Applications.:Sports.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 73,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 73,
"end_character": 276,
"text": "Roy Palmer suggests that \"being in the zone\" may also influence movement patterns as better integration of the conscious and subconscious reflex functions improves coordination. Many athletes describe the effortless nature of their performance while achieving personal bests.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "564387",
"title": "Flow (psychology)",
"section": "Section::::Applications.:Sports.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 71,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 71,
"end_character": 296,
"text": "The concept of \"being in the zone\" during an athletic performance fits within Csíkszentmihályi's description of the flow experience, and theories and applications of \"being in the zone\" and its relationship with athletic competitive advantage are topics studied in the field of sport psychology.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "617345",
"title": "City of Heroes",
"section": "Section::::Gameplay.\n",
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"text": "Players initially moved around the zones by jogging or using a minor speed-increasing power such as \"Sprint\". As heroes grew in level and accumulated more powers, they could choose among four higher speed traveling powers: Teleportation, Super Speed, Super Jumping, and Flight.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "13730",
"title": "Handball",
"section": "Section::::Gameplay.:Offensive play.\n",
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"text": "The third wave evolves into the normal offensive play when all defenders not only reach the zone, but gain their accustomed positions. Some teams then substitute specialised offence players. However, this implies that these players must play in the defence should the opposing team be able to switch quickly to offence. The latter is another benefit for fast playing teams.\n",
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"wikipedia_id": "30759716",
"title": "Fun4All",
"section": "Section::::Games.:Big League Sports.\n",
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"text": "\"Big League Sports\" is about putting players right into the action in the most thrilling situations in their favorite sports. There are multiple disciplines to master within tennis, basketball, football, soccer, lacrosse and hockey. But unlike other games the focus is not on the team – it is on whether or not you can deliver in specific, adrenaline pumping moments. Whether it is acing an opponent in tennis, hitting a basketball shot at the buzzer, or bending free kicks around a goalie in soccer, Big League Sports offers a fresh interpretation of what a sports game can be on Wii. \"Big League Sports\" features a total of 22 events. The game supports up to 4-player local multi-player. A character creation feature allows players to craft a character to their liking with dozens of customization options. Players can view their statistics and overall progress, as well as the trophies they have won.\n",
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"title": "Denard Robinson",
"section": "Section::::College career.:2010 track season.\n",
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"text": "One thing in football that you don't see in track is quickness. He's incredibly quick and his lateral movement is unbelievable and his ability to go in one direction and get in another. The perception people have is that's speed. That's not speed, that's quickness.\"\n",
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"title": "Two-way player",
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"text": "In sports that require a player to play on offense and defense, such as basketball and ice hockey, a two-way player refers to a player who excels at both. In sports where a player typically specializes on offense or defense, like American football, or on pitching or batting, like baseball, it refers to a player who chooses to do both.\n",
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| null |
200ckd | AskScience Cosmos Q & A thread. Episode 1: Standing Up in the Milky Way | [
{
"answer": "Is it just me, or is that asteroid belt way too dense? Not to mention the Kuiper belt. On a related note, how dense are the rings of Saturn? Would you see a thicket of iceballs whizzing past you if you actually flew a spacecraft through them?",
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"answer": "Does the Voyager 1 really have music that plays constantly? ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "At the beginning of the show, the narrator says that the great red spot on Jupiter is a giant hurricane three times the size of Earth that has been raging for centuries. When is the great red spot estimated to dissipate and the giant storm end? ",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "How did we decide what direction to send Voyager I, and isn't it pretty much guaranteed that it'll just crash/burn/be destroyed as soon as something else's gravity grabs it?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I've always been enamored with the giant storm on Jupiter. What is unique about Jupiters atmosphere that enables such a large and lasting disturbance? ",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "how is this whole universe upon universe culminating in the cosmos proven to us? how do we know all this?\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Does light ever reach a point where it dissipates into nothing, or does light continue to move infinitely? Do stronger or brighter lights travel further than weak lights, or do all lights travel the same distance? What happens when a light reaches the point where it no longer is detectable? ",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Is there any way we could potentially uncover how long the Great Red Spot has been storming across Jupiter? Or, do we have any idea of how long it might continue to exist? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "From what i remember, Voyager 1 is powered by RTGs...but how long until the power fully deteriorates and what exactly happens to the craft after it loses power? Does it just continue it's trajectory until it is pulled on by something?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The animation of the multiverse sent chills down my spine. What evidence is there for the multiverse theory?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What's with the dark spaces in the last image of the cosmos? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "How accurate is our image of the milky way? Obviously we've never seen the angle that is often shown and used in the show showing us in one of the outer arms. Is it actually based just on data we can gather from our perspective? Or is it assumption based on how other galaxies look that we can see from a different perspective, and we just assume ours looks the same? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Why is it that there exists parts of the universe from which light hasn't reached us if we theoretically all came from the same point in the big bang?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I have a question about the \"storm\" on Jupiter. What is it made of? I'm assuming there's no air there, so what's moving around? Or is it air?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What's the \"tidal friction\" that caused the moon to go away?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "How do we know the universe was compressed to a size smaller than an atom? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "\"Back in 1599 everyone knew the Sun planets and stars were just lights in the sky that revolved around the Earth\"\n\nHope he gets to [Aristarchus](_URL_0_):\n\n > Aristarchus of Samos (/ˌærəˈstɑrkəs/; Ἀρίσταρχος, Aristarkhos; c. 310 – c. 230 BC) was an ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician who presented the first known model that placed the Sun at the center of the known universe with the Earth revolving around it (see Solar system). He was influenced by Philolaus of Croton, but he identified the \"central fire\" with the Sun, and put the other planets in their correct order of distance around the Sun.[1] His astronomical ideas were often rejected in favor of the geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What formed the oceans? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "How did we know that the moon was closer? How did it change orbit without leaving orbit or crashing into the Earth?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When he talked about the moon and how close it was, he said something about it moving away. He said it was caused by \"tidal friction\". \n\nWhat is that? How long did it take? ",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Regarding the origin of the moon, I've heard the 2 separate theories about whether it was free floating and trapped in gravitational pull or formed slowly over time. What evidence was the 'tipping point' between the theories that makes us confident it wasn't trapped? I know for a fact I was taught the wrong info in high school less than 10 years ago, I'm hoping it was proven since then...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I always thought the moon was created from a meteor striking earth. Cosmos said it was created from gravity swirling together the remnants of when the Earth was made. When did this change?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This may be an obvious question, and I'm pretty confident I know the answer to the first part, but is the center of the Milky Way just densely packed stars and planets (Relatively, of course)? If so, is it likely that that's where we'll find life eventually, since there's so many stars and possible planets there?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Has anything that Carl Sagan mentioned in his original Cosmos series been completely disproven as of now?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What does it mean to say the universe is expanding? \n\nThat sequence where we saw the visible universe then multiverse made me think about the \"expanding universe\" in a completely new way. He said a comment about the visible universe just being the depth of light that has gotten/travelled to us. Does this mean the universe isn't truely expanding rather it's being exposed to us? As time goes on more and more light reaches our view. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Does the universe really look like a sponge as depicted in the show? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "How do we know about the existence of rogue planets?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Every time the big bang is discussed, the universe is described as containing nothing but hydrogen and dust. If there was nothing before, and hydrogen now, what was the dust? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When they show the zoomed out Cosmos are the densities of light emitting matter they show in line with our current observations. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If a planet were to fall out of its orbit, would its moon(s) not continue to fall into the gravitational pull of the sun? If so, would that then not classify said moon as a planet? If not, what is the distinction for classification of a planet?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "How do we know that the gravitational pull of one asteroid pulled another asteriod so that it helped form Earth?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When I majored in astrophysics, I was taught that the universe is 13.7 billion years old. In Cosmos tonight, Neil deGrasse Tyson was saying 13.8 billion years. Has it really been that long since I was in university?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Why was there a period of darkness after teh big bang?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm really impressed. When i first saw all the CGI and the space craft thing I was a little skeptical. But this is truly one of the few shows that I have ever been immersed in. Its great to see some quality television. I'm even more excited to have the opportunity to see Neil speak in two weeks!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Why aren't we sending out space crafts similar to the Voyager I on a regular basis? If you are stranded on an island and have enough glass bottles to send out many messages, why stop? Is it more of a symbolic gesture? Political? I realize it isn't much in the vastness of the universe, but just as Neil referred to the asteroid being shifted an inch and that being all it took (so to speak), it is hard to comprehend the implications such a small thing can have, so I was just wondering if there is any deciding factor that has stopped us from doing it more often?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "With all the storminess of Jupiter, are there warm spots due to friction? If so, how warm are these spots?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "So, what caused the asteroid belt, then? As a kid I had visions of colossal planetary destruction. I imagine the truth to be far less exciting. Is it just left over debris from the formation of our solar system?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Did I understand him right that flowers formed on Earth AFTER animals crawled out of the sea? At what point on this year of time calendar did plants begin to grow on the rocks/the Earth went green?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "How round actually are the gas giants? When showing the red spot it looked like there was an immense level of depth there? I always imagined them as perfect round spheres.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "On the first shot of the Andromeda Galaxy, what were the two spiral companions? They couldn't be M32 and M110, they're elliptical. I suppose one could be M33, but so far as I know, the field of view was too small for that. Even so, there's nothing to account for the other one. What am I missing?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The show appeared to show the moon formed from accretion already within the Earth's orbit. Is this the generally accepted theory, and does the \"capture versus impact\" argument I'm vaguely aware of more detail the origins of the proto-moon, which then swept up debris surrounding the Earth into the full moon?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "\"Everyone you've ever heard of was born in the last 14 seconds [of the Cosmic Calendar].\"\n\nWhat about Ardi and Lucy?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Excluding the multiverse theory do we know the shape of our viewable universe? \n\nLike with how energy goes out does it create a sphere shooting out in all possible directions or does the force of gravity pull everything down so it's shaped like...saturn's rings?\n\nAlso this may sound stupid but do all the planets rotate in the same direction? I know movement is relative but if some how I was to stay in the same spot in space could I look in front of me and behind me and see everything move \"the same way\"? If so why?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Hi all! Thanks!. My native language is not English but I’ll try my best formulating this question: Does atoms surrounding a supernova star are the same size as the atoms surrounding our stars? I find incredible that, as our measurements are related to our own size, then intelligent alien-life thousand times bigger than us will have such a hard time discovering sub-atomic particles, or even better, really small intelligent alien-life will easily discover sub-atomic existence for the same reason they are such closer to their size? For ford’s sake, I hope I made my self clear. Thanks.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "One thing I was wondering about was why did Saturn develop Rings while we developed a moon? I understand that our assumption is that we think a large planet sized object collided with our world. This collision shot tons of debris into orbit around Earth. Why did this coalesce into a moon instead of something like the rings of Saturn? In the same respect, if our moon was the norm in that the debris should snowball into a moon-like object, why did Saturn develop rings?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I recently read an interesting news story from /r/science about using spectroscopic signals from extraterrestrial atmospheres to detect planets with potential life.\n\nLink here: _URL_0_\n\nDuring the debut, the example of the immense size of the Oort cloud in comparison to our solar system was given. If this sort of barrier is around every star, what sort of signal-to-noise ratios can be expected with all these objects in the way? Can these sort of techniques be only because of the extreme magnification of the telescopes we use? I'm interested to learn more about the feasibilty of such techniques with so much frozen space junk in the way.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When the Big Bang occurred, what did we \"expand\" into?\n\nIf we are a multiverse like it was alluded to... does that mean we \"pushed\" other universes away?\n\nIf we're a universe... the potential for space existed and space was created as the universe expanded?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Where did Carl Sagan and Neil DeGrasse Tyson film the first scene of the show? I am currently in California and was wondering if I could maybe visit the location! ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Neil says the universe started out as a point smaller than an atom. Did he mean our observable universe or the infinite universe? I was under the impression that the big bang was more an event going from high uniform density to lower density where the observable universe was condensed into the space of an atom but that it was only one of an infinite number of other points who similarly expanded during the big bang.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "Why do orbiting bodies like the moon stay in orbit? I know the tablecloth analogy for relativity but when I try that, a planet gets destroyed by a moon, or the moon rolls off the table (maybe after a small bend in direction). \n\nIt seems reasonable to only have like a razor thin area where it would actually stay in orbit, otherwise either flinging out or crashing in. Why isn't it?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "so is it possible that there are parts of the universe that light has not reached yet, because the universe expanded for a good amount of time while stars were getting it together? Are there parts of the universe where there is nothing at all, even the radiation left over from the Big Bang?",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "My understanding was that the most probable explanation of the moon is that a ~mars sized object impacted the earth after it had mostly coalesced and knocked much of the lighter surface material back into orbit to form the moon. The video seems to show this collision, but tyson doesn't mention anything special. \n\nam I wrong or did they just gloss over it? ",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "It was mentioned in the show that after the big bang there was darkness for nearly 200 million years until gravity took control. i always thought that big bang was a huge flash of light and our known universe came out of it. If energy exploded out of the same big bang, how come there was darkness for so long? and how long after big bang did the darkness engulf everything?",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "Did it kind of irk anyone else the depiction of the Big Bang? I know this is a show that needs to *show* something, much like the over-exaggeration of the density of the Asteroid and Kuiper Belts, but I felt like these were good opportunities to *debunk* these misconceptions. What I'm referring to is that the big bang was more of a gradual widening, rather than a burst of fireworks and light. \n\nI mean, I really like how it looks, and can't wait to watch it every week, but it's little stuff like that. *Especially* after how nit-picky DeGrasse Tyson was over the physics in Gravity, you would think he'd give the animation in a show featuring himself a little more scrutiny. ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "If the Voyager I is planned to keep traveling into deep space even after we lose connection with it, how likely is it to get caught in some interstellar body's gravitational pull and get destroyed by either a collision, burn up in some terrestrial body's atmosphere, or any other way?\n\nDid the makers of voyager have a plan to have it keep going undisturbed for as long as possible to increase our chances of communicating with alien life? If so, how?",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "Sorry I'm late to the party, but I was wondering how it was determined that the asteroid that nudged the asteroid that would later become Earth was the same one that would strike Earth once more and lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In the picture of earth \"250 million years from now\" there was a superstructure in orbit that seems like it supports a major percentage of human life. I imagine this was not just a crazy drawing and actually is based on some good theories. Do you know what they are? For example, humans would have had to survive a couple of extinction events, so would it become necessary to live as the Jetsons from time to time?",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "I thought the distances between asteroids in the asteroid belt were astronomical, and that you could navigate right through it without having to alter your course much, or at all. I guess it's not a question, but it would have been nice to cover that fact instead of making it like the Star Wars asteroid belt. ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "Hey, I have a very noob question here.\n\nI am definitely an amateur of astronomy and I've read a few books on the subject but this always confuses me.\n\nAt what point is the universe expanding? I get the balloon analogy but are the galaxies moving away from each other or individual stars? Or clusters of galaxies? I don't get it. I know andromeda and the milky way are getting closer and closer so which bodies are actually moving AWAY from each other? \n\nThanks!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The close-up on the Great Red Spot on Jupiter was fascinating. From that angle, the edges of the storm look like huge canyon walls. How much do we know about the exact topography of the storm? How accurate was that segment?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "During the cosmic 'calendar' segment, when visiting the Big Bang Neil DeGrasse Tyson says \"...it's as far back as we can see in time, for now.\" \nI've always been in the belief that space and time were created at the Big Bang and that it's nonsensical to try and imagine something observable prior to it; is there some sort of theory being thrown around that says otherwise? \n\n*n.b. Sorry if this question has been asked already, I tried searching through the comments and couldn't find it*",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "42167296",
"title": "Standing Up in the Milky Way",
"section": "",
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"text": "\"Standing Up in the Milky Way\" is the first aired episode of the American documentary television series \"\". It premiered on March 9, 2014, simultaneously on various Fox television networks, including National Geographic Channel, FX, Fox Life, and others. The episode is presented by the series host astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, directed by Brannon Braga, produced by Livia Hanich and Steven Holtzman, and written by Ann Druyan and Steven Soter.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "42167296",
"title": "Standing Up in the Milky Way",
"section": "Section::::Reception.\n",
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"text": "\"Standing Up in the Milky Way\" was critically well accepted. John Teti from \"The A.V. Club\" gave the episode a mark of \"B\". He stated \"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is both ambitious and quaint. It attempts to convey humanity’s most expansive ideas in the space of a weekly 44-minute TV series. That’s ambitious,\" giving a positive review on the show's creation. He did criticize the show for its \"sloppy scripting that crops up more often later in the episode.\" Max Nicholson from IGN gave the episode a grade of 8.5 (\"Great\"), concluding \"the docu-series is unapologetic in its somewhat controversial depiction of organized religion, but it extends an olive branch for creative thinking and plays with concepts of faith in its whimsical view of the macrocosm.\" A positive review was also given by \"Slate\" journalist Phil Plait, who said that he sees the episode \"as making the more interesting and bigger point about suppression of thought and the grandeur of freedom of exploration of ideas.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "24818668",
"title": "Symphony of Science",
"section": "Section::::Music and video.:Our Place in the Cosmos.\n",
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"text": "The third video in the series is 4 minutes, 21 seconds in length and was released on November 23, 2009. \"Our Place in the Cosmos\" features Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Michio Kaku, and Robert Jastrow. Samples were taken from \"Cosmos\", \"Genius of Charles Darwin\", a TED talk, \"Stephen Hawking's Universe\", interviews and visuals from \"Baraka\" and \"Koyaanisqatsi\", History Channel's Universe series, and \"Cosmic Voyage\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "37822724",
"title": "NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe",
"section": "Section::::The Universe in Eleven Steps.\n",
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"text": "Explains the Milky Way Galaxy in 11 steps beginning with Earth, the moon and the solar system, and then farther and farther away in distance and time to the Hubble Deep Field and the end of the universe.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "2454274",
"title": "Monoceros Ring",
"section": "Section::::Dispute.\n",
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"text": "One way of thinking about this is to imagine being on the ocean when the waves are very high, or standing in hilly terrain. The next rise in the waves or the hills blocks the view of what lies beyond. In the same way, the next rise in the galactic structure is blocking view of what lies beyond, which apparently is a significant portion of the galactic disk. Based on the distance of the Monoceros Ring, the diameter of the Milky Way increases from 100,000-120,000 light years to somewhere around 150,000-180,000 light years across. In this revised paradigm, rather than lying at two-thirds of the galaxy's radius, the solar system lies about halfway between the core and the edge.\n",
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"wikipedia_id": "11535706",
"title": "Centered in the Universe",
"section": "Section::::Synopsis.\n",
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"text": "Towards the end of the show, the audience experiences a simulated flight through clusters of galaxies, into the Milky Way Galaxy, our solar system, skimming the surface of Mars, where the probable and tragic loss of oceans beckon the audience to wonder about the future of our planet, and then finally returns to Earth, landing on the front lawn of Griffith Observatory.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "39328195",
"title": "How It Began",
"section": "Section::::Summary.\n",
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"text": "The second third of the book examines the remote universe. Andromeda is seen as it was before humans evolved on the plains of Africa, and galaxies are all seen over time spans that dwarf our existence. The next stop is the massive Coma cluster of galaxies, a swarm of thousands of galaxies bound by invisible dark matter. This section continues with a visit to galaxies that created their stars long before the Earth formed and it finished with the time when stars first congealed out of gas in the expanding universe, 200 million years after the Big Bang.\n",
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| null |
fnoffk | If your body produces antibodies after defeating a pathogen indefinitely, when an individual gets exposed to many pathogens throughout their life, will they have a larger antibody density in their blood? Is there a limit to this? | [
{
"answer": "Antibodies are made as you require them. They are made by lymphocytes, after an infection you havea low number lymphocytes called memory cells in your blood these can build the antibodies required if you are exposed to the pathogen again.\n\nThe original process of producing an antibody for an infection is a random process.\n\nImmunity comes about because correct antibodies can be produced faster the second time you have an infection.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "Im not entirely sure but your body makes antibodies on request. There is not necessarily an entire flood of antibodies in your bloodstream because you fended off a lot of disseases. You have memory cells that are formed by B-helpercells whenever your body encounters a pathogen and survives. The next time your body encounters the same pathogen your body will react more rapidly and the memory cells that were made will immediately make antibodies to fend that pathogen off again. It is very possible that you have some antibodies in your bloodstream as we speak but I dont think the antibodies to all the pathogens youve faced before are in your bloodstream at the same time and I dont think there is a limit to having memory cells in your body if that was what you were asking. \n\nPlease do correct me if im wrong in any way good people of reddit. Hopefully I helped you.",
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "32653",
"title": "Vaccine",
"section": "Section::::Effectiveness.\n",
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"text": "Even if the host does develop antibodies, protection might not be adequate; immunity might develop too slowly to be effective in time, the antibodies might not disable the pathogen completely, or there might be multiple strains of the pathogen, not all of which are equally susceptible to the immune reaction. However, even a partial, late, or weak immunity, such as a one resulting from cross-immunity to a strain other than the target strain, may mitigate an infection, resulting in a lower mortality rate, lower morbidity, and faster recovery.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "8513008",
"title": "Host tropism",
"section": "Section::::How Host Tropism Works.:Host Cell Defense Mechanisms.\n",
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"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 639,
"text": "Once a bacterium or virus overcomes the body's innate immune system, the host organism's acquired immune system will take over. This immune response is highly specific to pathogens and provides the host with long-lasting immunity against future infection by that specific pathogen. When lymphocytes recognize antigens presented on a pathogen's surface, they will secrete antibodies that bind to the pathogen and alert macrophages and natural killer cells. These cells target the pathogen itself, killing it or rendering it inactive. This process further produces memory B cell and memory T cells that allow long-lasting immunity to occur.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "141029",
"title": "African trypanosomiasis",
"section": "Section::::Cause.:\"Trypanosoma brucei\".\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 571,
"text": "These antibodies will then act to destroy the parasites that circulate around the blood. However, from the several parasites present in the plasma, a small number of them will experience changes in their surface coats resulting in the formation of new VSGs. Thus, the antibodies produced by the immune system will no longer recognize the parasite leading to proliferation until new antibodies are created to combat the novel VSGs. Eventually the immune system will no longer be able to fight off the parasite due to the constant changes in VSGs and infection will arise.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "10449471",
"title": "Dose (biochemistry)",
"section": "Section::::Infectious dose.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 35,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 35,
"end_character": 351,
"text": "The infectious dose of a pathogen is the number of cells required to infect the host. All pathogens have an infectious dose typically given in number of cells. The infectious dose varies by organism and can be dependent on the specific type of strain. Some pathogens can infect a host with only a few cells, while others require millions or billions.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "9335254",
"title": "Polyclonal B cell response",
"section": "Section::::Basis of polyclonality.:Diversity of B cell clones.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 47,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 47,
"end_character": 851,
"text": "Although there are many diverse pathogens, many of which are constantly mutating, it is a surprise that a majority of individuals remain free of infections. Thus, maintenance of health requires the body to recognize all pathogens (antigens they present or produce) likely to exist. This is achieved by maintaining a pool of immensely large (about 10) clones of B cells, each of which reacts against a specific epitope by recognizing and producing antibodies against it. However, at any given time very few clones actually remain receptive to their specific epitope. Thus, approximately 10 different epitopes can be recognized by all the B cell clones combined. Moreover, in a lifetime, an individual usually requires the generation of antibodies against very few antigens in comparison with the number that the body can recognize and respond against.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "37220",
"title": "Infection",
"section": "Section::::Prevention.:Immunity.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 111,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 111,
"end_character": 422,
"text": "Infection with most pathogens does not result in death of the host and the offending organism is ultimately cleared after the symptoms of the disease have waned. This process requires immune mechanisms to kill or inactivate the inoculum of the pathogen. Specific acquired immunity against infectious diseases may be mediated by antibodies and/or T lymphocytes. Immunity mediated by these two factors may be manifested by:\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8513008",
"title": "Host tropism",
"section": "Section::::How Host Tropism Works.:Host Cell Defense Mechanisms.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 238,
"text": "In conclusion, if a pathogen is capable of overcoming various host defenses, recognizing a host cell for infection, and successfully replicating within a host tissue, then the pathogen is likely to possess tropism for that specific host.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
1v6tkf | why aren't there any laws limiting the use of plastic? | [
{
"answer": "Because people want plastic things, a lot. The innovation of plastic products completely changed the world. People in general don't want to stop using plastic.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The people who really makes tons of money from using plastic are very rich. They often have several homes far away from land-fills and dumps, so it doesn't bother them at all. They don't care at all about the people who DO live near dumps. \n\nThey have many millions of dollars to give away to influence law-makers and help law-makers get re-elected. \nThe law-makers want to get or stay in office so they do what they are told to do.\n\nI see it every single day. The company I work for has many locations and throws many tons of plastics into the dumpsters every day. this is not an exaggeration. The people who make the rules make millions of dollars every year. They don't care about the dump. They would not make as much if they had to do business differently. It's all about profit, not about the environment.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[A lot of counties in CA have reusable bag laws such as this one in Alameda County.](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "939470",
"title": "Extended producer responsibility",
"section": "Section::::Plastic bags.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 900,
"text": "Recycling, banning, and taxation fails to adequately reduce the pollution caused by plastic bags. An alternative to these policies would be to increase extended producer responsibility. In the US, under the Clinton presidency, the President's Council on Sustainable Development suggested EPR in order to target different participants in the cycle of a product's life. This can, however, make the product more expensive since the cost must be taken into consideration before being put on the market, which is why it is not widely used in the United States currently. Instead, there is banning or taxation of plastic bags, which puts the responsibility on the consumers. In the United States, EPR has not successfully been made mandatory, instead being voluntary. What has been recommended is a comprehensive program which combines taxation, producer responsibility, and recycling to combat pollution.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "26145195",
"title": "Plastic",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 364,
"text": "Due to their low cost, ease of manufacture, versatility, and imperviousness to water, plastics are used in a multitude of products of different scale, including paper clips and spacecraft. They have prevailed over traditional materials, such as wood, stone, horn and bone, leather, metal, glass, and ceramic, in some products previously left to natural materials.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "36080727",
"title": "Phase-out of lightweight plastic bags",
"section": "Section::::Legislation around the world.:North America.:Canada.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 109,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 109,
"end_character": 202,
"text": "The Canadian government has plans to ban single-use plastics as early as 2021, the list of items to be banned includes plastic straws, cotton swabs, stirrers, plates, cutlery as well as balloon sticks.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "536673",
"title": "American Chemistry Council",
"section": "Section::::Plastic bag regulation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 580,
"text": "But subsequent ACC efforts to prevent adoption of municipal ordinances banning plastic bags have not been successful. Over ACC opposition, San Jose, California, in 2010 adopted California's strictest ban. The ordinance, in effect since 2012, prohibits supermarkets, pharmacies, corner shops and others from distributing single-use plastic bags, with fines for violations. Retailers can sell paper bags made of 40 percent recycled materials for 10 cents each, gradually increasing to 25 cents by 2014. In 2016, California voters approved a statewide ban on carry-out plastic bags.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "60803494",
"title": "China waste import ban",
"section": "Section::::Chinese plastic history.:Plastic recycling.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 1005,
"text": "It was reported that roughly 50% of plastics are being utilized in disposable manufacturing processes such as packaging, agricultural films, and disposables, while 20 to 25 % was used for long-term infrastructure like pipes, coating for cables and structured materials and the remainder is used for durable moderate life consumer goods such as electronics, furniture, and vehicles. In general, plastic is considered to be durable and non-biodegradable hence making them difficult to decompose for at least a few decades with some lasting over hundreds or thousands of years. Judging from the domestic environmental factors, even some degradable plastics may still exist for a considerable period of time due to their degradation rate which is also influenced by factors such as the exposure of UV, oxygen, and temperature, whereas biodegradable plastics require the need of adequate microorganisms. Therefore, the rate of degradation in landfills and terrestrial, marine environments would tend to vary. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "39806043",
"title": "Bottled water ban",
"section": "Section::::Motivation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 203,
"text": "The use of plastics continues to rise in our daily lives due to its convenience and cheap price. But the cost that is not obvious to many is the environmental and health impacts they are leaving behind.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "967372",
"title": "Drinking straw",
"section": "Section::::Environmental impact.:Plastic straw bans and proposals.:United Kingdom.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 63,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 63,
"end_character": 543,
"text": "On April 19, 2018, ahead of Earth Day, a proposal to phase out single-use plastics was announced during the meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government. This will include plastic drinking straws, which cannot be recycled and contribute to ocean deterioration, damaging ecosystems and wildlife. It is estimated that as of 2018, about 23 million straws are used and discarded daily in the UK. Plastic straws will be banned in England from April 2020. However, there will be exemptions for those who require plastic straws due to disability.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
46o166 | In "The Dialectic of Sex," Shulamith Firestone claims that childhood was essentially an invention of the 15th century, and that before that point male children were treated as adults and functioned perfectly well in adult society. Is this true? | [
{
"answer": "Is she focusing on a specific area? I doubt \"childhood as an invention\" in the 1400s was a global phenomenon.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Hmm... I was sure there were several great threads on the development of the ideas of childhood, teenagers, etc, but have only been able to find one. Hopefully this is useful to you: an old thread with a response by /u/melaniedaniels\n\n* [Childhood - How & Why Invented](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm not familiar with Firestone's book, but I've written a few times on childhood and adolescence in the premodern world here on AH.\n\n* [Historiography of children and childhood](_URL_0_)\n* [Is adolescence an invention of the 20th century?](_URL_1_) (This has more to do with teenage-hood as a distinct life stage)\n\nMentioned in the second post, Shahar and Hanawalt provide some of the clearest evidence that medieval boys, specifically, were not merely \"little men.\" They show how boys (into teenagehood!) did spend some of their leisure time engaging in some activities practiced by men--but they were still excluded from some, and they still spent some of their time in children's/women's activities. Latin chroniclers also distinguish between youths and boys of \"full maturity.\"\n\nParents writing letters to their sons at university (think ages 15-20) seem quite sure that those sons are not ready to be fully functioning adults, what with how they throw money away on frivolties and neglect their studies and brawl violently at bars.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "49475966",
"title": "Joan Cadden (historian)",
"section": "Section::::Career.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 861,
"text": "Her book \"Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Age: Medicine, Science, and Culture\" (1993) was groundbreaking in its examination of sex and gender, and has deeply influenced subsequent scholarship. Cadden examines the discussions of sexual difference from Aristotle through the fourteenth century, revealing a wide range of ideas about sexual determination, reproductive roles and sexual pleasure. She finds multiple models of sexuality in writings throughout the middles ages. This challenged Thomas Laqueur's assertion in \"Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud\" (1990) that male and female were seen as \"manifestations of a unified substratum\" before the 18th century. Cadden addressed medieval discourse in all its \"staggering complexity\", an \"interconnectedness of intellectual interests\" that was \"far from comforting\" in its diversity.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "60404516",
"title": "Sex education in Francoist Spain and the democratic transition",
"section": "Section::::History.:Francoist period (1939–1975).\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 1502,
"text": "Informally, girls were faced with a knowledge void. Their elders did not share information with them. This silence led to the spreading of myths around women's sexuality, including that men were a representation of evil. As they grew older and closer to the age to marry, girls received more sexual education from friends, mothers, sisters, and future in-laws. The education explained the role of the husband. It also addressed the importance of a doctor for reproductive health. Largely though, young women were left to navigate in the dark, with little informal education. Few girls from economically disadvantaged families had access to texts that could provide them with additional information, not even in manuals designed for marriage preparation courses. For other parts of society, the use of marriage self-help books was common, and many people received their sex education from these. These marital guides about sex and conjugal rights were published for couples about to marry or recently married, providing information for men or women on sexual and reproductive health. They were written from a clinical perspective and amounted to self-help guides. They were intended to be read in the privacy of a person's home, correcting misinformation resulting from people not being able to discuss sexuality because it was culturally taboo. For upper-class men, sex education was generally informal and would often come from sex with prostitutes and with maids employed by their households.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "51431604",
"title": "Intersex in history",
"section": "Section::::Ancient history.:Ancient Greece.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 565,
"text": "According to Leah DeVun, a \"traditional Hippocratic/Galenic model of sexual difference – popularized by the late antique physician Galen and the ascendant theory for much of the Middle Ages – viewed sex as a spectrum that encompassed masculine men, feminine women, and many shades in between, including hermaphrodites, a perfect balance of male and female\". DeVun contrasts this with an Artistotelian view of intersex, which argued that \"hermaphrodites were not an intermediate sex but a case of doubled or superfluous genitals\", and this later influenced Aquinas.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "42327",
"title": "Sex education",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 1136,
"text": "Traditionally, adolescents in many cultures were not given any information on sexual matters, with the discussion of these issues being considered taboo. Such instruction, as was given, was traditionally left to a child's parents, and often this was put off until just before a child's marriage. The progressive education movement of the late 19th century, however, led to the introduction of \"social hygiene\" in North American school curricula and the advent of school-based sex education. Despite early inroads of school-based sex education, most of the information on sexual matters in the mid-20th century was obtained informally from friends and the media, and much of this information was deficient or of dubious value, especially during the period following puberty, when curiosity about sexual matters was the most acute. This deficiency was heightened by the increasing incidence of teenage pregnancies, particularly in Western countries after the 1960s. As part of each country's efforts to reduce such pregnancies, programs of sex education were introduced, initially over strong opposition from parent and religious groups.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "250193",
"title": "Child sexuality",
"section": "Section::::History.:Modern times.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 579,
"text": "Little is known of child sexuality before the Age of Enlightenment, but it is presumed (considering the number of servants needed to run great households and the simple design of ordinary homes) that many children would have observed sexual activity as a frequent and natural phenomenon. In the 19th century, with the arrival of industrialization and literacy, sexual repression appears to have become institutionalized and extra-marital activity generally criminalized to the point where newly married couples experienced difficulty in achieving consummation of their marriage.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "23266996",
"title": "Patriarchy",
"section": "Section::::History and scope.:Modern history.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 26,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 26,
"end_character": 590,
"text": "In the 19th century, various women began to question the commonly accepted patriarchal interpretation of Christian scripture. One of the foremost of these was Sarah Grimké, who voiced skepticism about the ability of men to translate and interpret passages relating to the roles of the sexes without bias. She proposed alternative translations and interpretations of passages relating to women, and she applied historical and cultural criticism to a number of verses, arguing that their admonitions applied to specific historical situations, and were not to be viewed as universal commands.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1391521",
"title": "Shulamith Firestone",
"section": "Section::::Death and Legacy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 28,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 28,
"end_character": 208,
"text": "\"The Dialectic of Sex\" is still used in many women's studies programs. Its recommendations, such as raising children in a gender neutral fashion, mirror the ideals Firestone set out to achieve in her heyday.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
12v9wn | Is time dilation the same at every black-hole event horizon? | [
{
"answer": "Might I be able to also ask a question regarding black holes, their shape etc.?\n\nFrom what I understand, there's a region on the edge of the event horizon is a photon sphere where photons moving on a tangent to this will become trapped in orbit. \n\nHowever when I've seen pictures regarding black holes - particularly showing the 'corona' around the event horizon where light behind the hole is bending around it - it is shown as just that: a corona-like light with a void in the middle.\n\nHow can the photon sphere be just that - spherical - yet not actually show up as a mass of photons when viewed in xray /infra-red etc? Surely if these photons are in a sphere around the event horizon it would appear almost like a star, right?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "According to an outside observer, the event horizon is *defined* by the fact that the time dilation there is infinite. So in a sense, yes.\n\nTo an observer falling *into* a black hole, time never comes to a standstill, and in fact the event horizon should be no different to such an observer than any other part of her descent.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1729618",
"title": "Stasis (fiction)",
"section": "Section::::Overview.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 385,
"text": "There are real phenomena that cause time dilation similar that of a stasis field. Extremely high velocities approaching light speed or immensely powerful gravitational fields such as those existing near the event horizons of black holes will cause time to progress more slowly. However, there is no known theoretical way of causing such time dilation independently of such conditions.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "293670",
"title": "Eddington–Finkelstein coordinates",
"section": "Section::::Tortoise coordinate.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 496,
"text": "The increase in the time coordinate to infinity as one approaches the event horizon is why information could never be received back from any probe that is sent through such an event horizon. This is despite the fact that the probe itself can nonetheless travel past the horizon. It is also why the space-time metric of the black hole, when expressed in Schwarzschild coordinates, becomes singular at the horizon - and thereby fails to be able to fully chart the trajectory of an infalling probe.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "293670",
"title": "Eddington–Finkelstein coordinates",
"section": "Section::::Tortoise coordinate.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 424,
"text": "When some probe (such as a light ray or an observer) approaches a black hole event horizon, its Schwarzschild time coordinate grows infinite. The outgoing null rays in this coordinate system have an infinite change in \"t\" on travelling out from the horizon. The tortoise coordinate is intended to grow infinite at the appropriate rate such as to cancel out this singular behaviour in coordinate systems constructed from it.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "313767",
"title": "Time horizon",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 329,
"text": "Also, in terms of physics, the term \"time horizon\" is also synonymous with event horizon, first identified in Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Hawking stated that the time horizon is the boundary that separates a black hole from other celestial bodies. Even time and light cannot escape once trapped in the black hole.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "151013",
"title": "T-symmetry",
"section": "Section::::Macroscopic phenomena: black holes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 19,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 19,
"end_character": 355,
"text": "The time reversal of a black hole would be a hypothetical object known as a white hole. From the outside they appear similar. While a black hole has a beginning and is inescapable, a white hole has an ending and cannot be entered. The forward light-cones of a white hole are directed outward; and its backward light-cones are directed towards the center.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14286",
"title": "Holographic principle",
"section": "Section::::Black hole entropy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 697,
"text": "Stephen Hawking had shown earlier that the total horizon area of a collection of black holes always increases with time. The horizon is a boundary defined by light-like geodesics; it is those light rays that are just barely unable to escape. If neighboring geodesics start moving toward each other they eventually collide, at which point their extension is inside the black hole. So the geodesics are always moving apart, and the number of geodesics which generate the boundary, the area of the horizon, always increases. Hawking's result was called the second law of black hole thermodynamics, by analogy with the law of entropy increase, but at first, he did not take the analogy too seriously.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4650",
"title": "Black hole",
"section": "Section::::Properties and structure.:Event horizon.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 711,
"text": "To a distant observer, clocks near a black hole would appear to tick more slowly than those further away from the black hole. Due to this effect, known as gravitational time dilation, an object falling into a black hole appears to slow as it approaches the event horizon, taking an infinite time to reach it. At the same time, all processes on this object slow down, from the view point of a fixed outside observer, causing any light emitted by the object to appear redder and dimmer, an effect known as gravitational redshift. Eventually, the falling object fades away until it can no longer be seen. Typically this process happens very rapidly with an object disappearing from view within less than a second.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
4l984p | why is it so difficult for the medical community to give a straight answer about how much a procedure/appointment/etc. will cost? | [
{
"answer": "The doctors and nurses don't even *know* how much shit costs. They just say what work they've done & the billing department handles the prices.\n\nBilling can't give you a straight answer because they have different rates for cash payments or insurance. Every insurance company negotiates a set of rates they'll pay for procedures but how much you're left paying depends on the terms of your insurance plan. Then, if you're poor, you might be able to negotiate an even *lower* price so the hospital can at least get *something* out of you.\n\nThe whole system is confusing and inefficient. Those inefficiencies only serve to drive costs up while making insurance companies rich. This is one of the many reasons that people think a single-payer system - where the government is the only insurer for everyone - would be superior.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "6199182",
"title": "Health literacy",
"section": "Section::::Patient safety and outcomes.:Risk identification.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 40,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 40,
"end_character": 342,
"text": "The American Medical Association showed that asking simple single item questions, such as \"How confident are you in filling out medical forms by yourself?\", is a very effective and direct way to understand from a patient's point of view how they feel about interacting with their healthcare provider and understanding their health condition.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "41384660",
"title": "Health information on the Internet",
"section": "Section::::Types.:Educational resources for lay audiences.:Background on the doctor–patient relationship.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 904,
"text": "Physicians have difficulty explaining complicated medical concepts to their patients and patients have difficulty understanding complicated things which physicians tell them. One reasons for this is that a patient's visit to a physician is likely to be less than 15 minutes, and in any case, physicians are unable to spend the amount of time which patients that patients typically desire. Physicians use medical terms which patients do not understand, but which they would like to learn. There is consensus that patients should have shared decision making, which means that they make informed decisions about the direction of their health care in collaboration with their physician. Rich, educated, socially advantaged patients enjoy many more benefits of shared decision making than patients who have disadvantages in getting healthcare, including lower socioeconomic class or having a minority status.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "811741",
"title": "Healthcare in Canada",
"section": "Section::::Criticisms.:Wait times.:Counter-criticism: Some longer wait times can benefit patients.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 75,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 75,
"end_character": 603,
"text": "It has been speculated and supported in data (from a report conducted in 1998) that the complete elimination of all waiting times is not ideal. When waiting lists arise through a prioritization process based on physician-determined medical urgency and the procedure's risk, (in contrast to patient's ability to pay or profitability for the physician), waiting lists can possibly help patients. It has been postulated that a system of immediate care can be detrimental for optimal patient outcomes, as unnecessary or unproven surgery might not be easily avoided if all patients are granted instant care.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "13748138",
"title": "Operating room management",
"section": "Section::::Operating room efficiency.:Contribution margin per OR hour.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 51,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 51,
"end_character": 508,
"text": "An OR suite that puts up with excessive surgical times can schedule itself efficiently but still lose its financial shirt if many surgeons are slow, use too many instruments, or expensive implants, etc. These are all measured by the contribution margin per OR hr. The contribution margin per hour of OR time is the hospital revenue generated by a surgical case, less all the hospitalization variable labor and supply costs. Variable costs, such as implants, vary directly with the volume of cases performed.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "21247709",
"title": "Healthcare in Italy",
"section": "Section::::National Health Service.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 704,
"text": "Visits by specialist doctors or diagnostic tests are provided by the public hospitals or by conventional private ones, and if prescribed by the family doctor require only a copay (of the order of $40 for a visit without any diagnostic test) and are free for the poor. Waiting times are usually up to a few months in the big public facilities and up to a few weeks in the small conventional private facilities, though the referring doctor can shorten the waiting times of the more urgent cases by prioritising them. Patients, however, can opt for the \"free market\" option, provided by both public and private hospitals, which is paid completely out-of-pocket and has generally much shorter waiting times.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2610125",
"title": "Geisinger Health System",
"section": "Section::::Quality and Cost-Containment.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 656,
"text": "Several factors have been identified as contributing to its high performance, including its payment of doctors on a flat salary bais instead of fee-for-service (which tends to incentivize volume of care rather than quality); bundled payments for several common procedures (such as heart surgery and prenatal care) to shield patients and the system from paying for complications arising from the original service; establishing checklists of best practices for physicians to follow for specific conditions and procedures to ensure good outcomes for patients; and a robust electronic medical record system that minimizes duplication of treatments and tests. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "45599",
"title": "Surgery",
"section": "Section::::Special populations.:Vulnerable populations.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 68,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 68,
"end_character": 441,
"text": "Doctors perform surgery with the consent of the patient. Some patients are able to give better informed consent than others. Populations such as incarcerated persons, people living with dementia, the mentally incompetent, persons subject to coercion, and other people who are not able to make decisions with the same authority as a typical patient have special needs when making decisions about their personal healthcare, including surgery.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
2rxlkk | do programs like lumosity have any measurable benefit to cognitive abilities? or is it all just hype? | [
{
"answer": "Using Lumosity regularly makes you better at Lumosity. It might be of more benefit to your cognition than staring at a wall and picking your nose, but it's mostly hype and pseudoscience",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I visited a friend who is getting his masters for psychology. He told me about a friend of his in the same program but older who was planning on doing his thesis on actually measuring the benefits of lumosity. Right before he was set to get started, they changed their policy to say that no one can use a lumosity account for research purposes, only their internal guys can do it. His entire thesis was wrecked. \n\nTo answer your question... No, it's not measurable by anyone in any valuable way. Just the way they want it. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If it improved performance on things that are not itself, in measurable ways, or even was based on things that do, they'd cite the studies they were basing that on, because that'd be way cooler for marketing than just \"designed by scientists.\"\n\nUnfortunately there is no science for games to do what they want to do. That's not to say their claims are false - mostly that they simply haven't been studied. But as a general rule of thumb, assume advertisers make the strongest claims they can truthfully make about the benefits of their product, and Lumosity stops short of claiming any measurable benefit (though they do claim some people subjectively feel smarter). That's a clue.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "I can't find the article I read last month where a neurologist said that it can't raise your intelligence, but like any form of practice you will get better at the thing being practiced, so you are better off choosing something important to you and giving that particular focus your all.\n\nBut in case you still want to work your brain with games, [this study found that you are better off thinking in portals](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'd like to weigh in here with some very little undergrad information I just learned, but basically going to back up what everyone else is saying. You'll get better at lumosity, but it has no real measurable impact on plasticity or fighting off alzheimers. Sorry no references. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "58122486",
"title": "Joseph W. Kable",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 617,
"text": "Kable researches cognitive neuroscience. His work has suggested that an individual's approach to risk in decision making is correlated with the anatomical structure of the brain. Another of Kable's projects concluded that \"Brain Training\" using Lumosity software “appears to have no benefits in healthy young adults above those of standard video games.” Kable's team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activation in the participants while they were performing executive function tasks. The measurements revealed no difference in brain activity between the Lumosity and control groups.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "44771670",
"title": "Adam Gazzaley",
"section": "Section::::Career.:Research.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 452,
"text": "Several of Gazzaley's studies explore how cognitive abilities may be enhanced via engagement with custom designed video games, neurofeedback and TES. In 2009 he designed a video game, NeuroRacer, to enhance cognitive abilities of older adults. In a study published in 2013 as the cover story of Nature he showed that the multitasking nature of the game caused improvements in tasks outside of the game involving working memory and sustained attention.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "351517",
"title": "Systolic array",
"section": "Section::::Goals and benefits.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 321,
"text": "Systolic arrays are therefore extremely good at artificial intelligence, image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision and other tasks which animal brains do so particularly well. Wavefront processors in general can also be very good at machine learning by implementing self configuring neural nets in hardware.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "991666",
"title": "MISD",
"section": "Section::::Systolic arrays.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 321,
"text": "Systolic arrays are therefore extremely good at artificial intelligence, image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision and other tasks which animal brains do so particularly well. Wavefront processors in general can also be very good at machine learning by implementing self configuring neural nets in hardware.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1305044",
"title": "Neuroscience and intelligence",
"section": "Section::::Humans.:Neural efficiency.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 27,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 27,
"end_character": 837,
"text": "fMRI and EEG studies have revealed that task difficulty is an important factor affecting neural efficiency. More intelligent individuals display neural efficiency only when faced with tasks of subjectively easy to moderate difficulty, while no neural efficiency can be found during difficult tasks. In fact, more able individuals appear to invest more cortical resources in tasks of high difficulty. This appears to be especially true for the Prefrontal Cortex, as individuals with higher intelligence displayed increased activation of this area during difficult tasks compared to individuals with lower intelligence. It has been proposed that the main reason for the neural efficiency phenomenon could be that individuals with high intelligence are better at blocking out interfering information than individuals with low intelligence.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1409767",
"title": "High-intensity interval training",
"section": "Section::::Health effects.:Brain power.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 35,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 35,
"end_character": 459,
"text": "A 2017 study examined the effect of HIIT on cognitive performance among a group of children (N=318). The authors show that HIIT is beneficial to cognitive control and working memory capacity when compared against \"a blend of board games, computer games, and trivia quizzes\" and that this effect is mediated by the BDNF polymorphism. They conclude that the study \"suggests a promising alternative to enhance cognition, via short and potent exercise regimens\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "19873005",
"title": "Confederate effect",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 205,
"text": "It is the reverse of the ELIZA effect, which Sherry Turkle states is \"our more general tendency to treat responsive computer programs as more intelligent than they really are\": that is, anthropomorphism. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
7cplaa | How was helium identified from the continuous spectrum of the sun? | [
{
"answer": "The sun's photosphere is cooler than the regions below it, creating absorption lines. If you point a spectrometer at the sun you don't get a continuous spectrum, you get a continuous spectrum superimposed with black lines where the particular wavelength was absorbed by the cooler upper atmosphere. Those absorption lines are in the exact place that emission lines are, so if we see absorption lines in the sun that we haven't been able to find a matching emission line then we know we have an element in the sun that we have yet to find and get emission lines for. Here is a picture of the whole visible wavelength spectrum of the sun _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "13256",
"title": "Helium",
"section": "Section::::History.:Scientific discoveries.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 719,
"text": "The first evidence of helium was observed on August 18, 1868, as a bright yellow line with a wavelength of 587.49 nanometers in the spectrum of the chromosphere of the Sun. The line was detected by French astronomer Jules Janssen during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India. This line was initially assumed to be sodium. On October 20 of the same year, English astronomer, Norman Lockyer, observed a yellow line in the solar spectrum, which, he named the D because it was near the known D and D Fraunhofer line lines of sodium. He concluded that it was caused by an element in the Sun unknown on Earth. Lockyer and English chemist Edward Frankland named the element with the Greek word for the Sun, ἥλιος (\"helios\").\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "22965372",
"title": "Vijaydurg Fort",
"section": "Section::::Movies.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 42,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 42,
"end_character": 448,
"text": "The published reports on the discovery of helium report, that helium was discovered by two scientists independently in 1868. French astronomer Jules Janssen observed helium emission lines on 18 August 1868 as a bright yellow line during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India. On 20 October of the same year, English astronomer Norman Lockyer observed a yellow line in the solar spectrum. He took the observation in West Hampstead, United Kingdom.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "13256",
"title": "Helium",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 951,
"text": "Helium is named for the Greek Titan of the Sun, Helios. It was first detected as an unknown, yellow spectral line signature in sunlight, during a solar eclipse in 1868 by Georges Rayet, Captain C. T. Haig, Norman R. Pogson, and Lieutenant John Herschel, and was subsequently confirmed by French astronomer, Jules Janssen. Janssen is often jointly credited with detecting the element, along with Norman Lockyer. Janssen recorded the helium spectral line during the solar eclipse of 1868, while Lockyer observed it from Britain. Lockyer was the first to propose that the line was due to a new element, which he named. The formal discovery of the element was made in 1895 by two Swedish chemists, Per Teodor Cleve and Nils Abraham Langlet, who found helium emanating from the uranium ore, \"cleveite\". In 1903, large reserves of helium were found in natural gas fields in parts of the United States, which is by far the largest supplier of the gas today.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "26751",
"title": "Sun",
"section": "Section::::Structure and fusion.:Photosphere.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 48,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 48,
"end_character": 374,
"text": "During early studies of the optical spectrum of the photosphere, some absorption lines were found that did not correspond to any chemical elements then known on Earth. In 1868, Norman Lockyer hypothesized that these absorption lines were caused by a new element that he dubbed \"helium\", after the Greek Sun god Helios. Twenty-five years later, helium was isolated on Earth.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "20709740",
"title": "Extreme helium star",
"section": "Section::::Properties.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 609,
"text": "The first known extreme helium star, HD 124448, was discovered in 1942 by Daniel M. Popper at the McDonald Observatory in Austin, Texas, USA. This star displayed no lines of hydrogen in its spectrum, but strong helium lines as well as the presence of carbon and oxygen. The second, PV Telescopii, was discovered in 1952, and by 1996 a total of 25 candidates had been found. (This list was narrowed to 21 by 2006.) A common characteristic of these stars is that the abundance ratio of carbon to helium is always in the range of 0.3 to 1%. This is despite wide variation of other abundance ratios in EHe stars.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11572324",
"title": "List of Indian inventions and discoveries",
"section": "Section::::Discoveries.:Sciences.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 108,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 108,
"end_character": 244,
"text": "BULLET::::- Helium: The French astronomer, Pierre Janssen observed the Solar eclipse of 18 August 1868 from Guntur in Madras State, British India. He discovered the first evidence of helium as a bright yellow line in the chromograph of the Sun\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "39674",
"title": "Planetary nebula",
"section": "Section::::Observations.:Spectra.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
"end_character": 485,
"text": "At first, it was hypothesized that the line might be due to an unknown element, which was named nebulium. A similar idea had led to the discovery of helium through analysis of the Sun's spectrum in 1868. While helium was isolated on Earth soon after its discovery in the spectrum of the Sun, \"nebulium\" was not. In the early 20th century, Henry Norris Russell proposed that, rather than being a new element, the line at 500.7 nm was due to a familiar element in unfamiliar conditions.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
3z0ci3 | What would the ramifications of a lack of causality be? | [
{
"answer": "Unpredictability. The equations of motion lose existence and uniqueness. Given a certain initial condition at time t, there might not exist a solution to later time, or there might be infinite equally valid. Essentially the Universe doesn't know what to do with itself, and even if it does, there is no way of predicting anything even having knowledge of the equations of motion and initial condition. Physics is dead.\n\nThat loss of existence and uniqueness actually occurs has been studied for various cases, including the motion of a rigid ball in a spacetime with a wormhole allowing timetravel (see e.g. the works of Novikov & Thorne), or classical field theories in the presence of CTCs.\n\nThe exceptions are free theories, but these are boring, no actual physics can happen in them. As soon as you add interactions of any kind it's over.\n\nAnother sort of consideration comes from thermodynamics. We have a second law because our Universe has two temporal extremities with different entropies. So entropy increases when moving from one to the other; we call the low-entropy one the Big Bang and the direction of increasing entropy gives the arrow of time, and interesting stuff happens following the Universe in this direction.\n\nIf you have a region with CTCs where, say, you can think of time as a circle, there is no way of course for entropy to always increase in one direction. The most probable situation is to always have constant maximum entropy, that is thermal equilibrium.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "You are asking for consequences of acausality which is almost by definition the lack of consequences. Thus the answer would be none.\n\nThe word causal has a more restricted meaning about how events that influence each other are arranged into nice neighborliness relations. If you had A causing B causing C and there is no restriction on where B can be located in regards to A and C in the timeblock of the universe B could for example be totally surrounded by events which have nothing to do with this A- > B- > C process. If we don't posit any additional acausal mechanics to exist there is no guarantee that stuff just fails to exist in the next time instant given that there remains any sense to talk about there being a time.\n\nNow it would be interesting if the every \"happening\" would require for there to be a \"consequence\" but there would be no restriction on chronal placement. For example the idea in retrocausality would not be causal in the \"timeoriented causing\" sense but would still have causes and consequences. We are so entrenched in the idea that we don't need to individuate these two effects that we just call it \"causality\" without having any good established words for the two aspects. Anything that would not be causal but would not be total chaos would be so weird that any of our usual strategies would pretty much fall flat.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "246070",
"title": "Predictability",
"section": "Section::::Predictability and causality.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 305,
"text": "Causal determinism has a strong relationship with predictability. Perfect predictability implies strict determinism, but lack of predictability does not necessarily imply lack of determinism. Limitations on predictability could be caused by factors such as a lack of information or excessive complexity. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "6492079",
"title": "Causal chain",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 1377,
"text": "Some philosophers believe that causality may not exist if determinism is true, as causality is merely the observation that one event precedes another, or that there is a pattern throughout spacetime in which events of one similar type tend to correlate with events of another similar type (that is, the mass-energy distribution in spacetime has an information theoretic 'pattern' where car crashes tend to be correlated with injury, say). There may be no ultimate reason for why a chain of causality occurs the way that it does beyond the fact that a chain of causality exists. The fact that certain events seem to 'cause' other events is the recognition of a pattern in the structure of spacetime and the mass-energy that exists in spacetime, which is ultimately either due OR an instantiation of the laws of physics. Note: Stating that causality does not exist may be a bit misleading, as one would have to Define what is meant by 'causality' - it may be that causality is dependent upon counterfactual definiteness, that is, A causes B because, if A did NOT occur, then B would not occur (i.e.: A is necessary for B) AND because A is sufficient for B. It may be possible that causality is ultimately a meaningless concept (if one rejects counterfactual definiteness for instance), but that causal chains are still a valid concept (as they would merely be chains of events).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "20638729",
"title": "Causal reasoning",
"section": "Section::::Inferring cause and effect.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 415,
"text": "Causal reasoning may be activated almost automatically. However, inferences about cause and effect do not always demonstrate understanding of mechanisms underlying causality; causality has been described as \"cognitive illusion\". Much understanding of cause and effect is based on associations, without an understanding of how events are related to one another; this is known as the \"illusion of explanatory depth\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "151577",
"title": "Causality (physics)",
"section": "Section::::Causality in physics.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 437,
"text": "Despite these subtleties, causality remains an important and valid concept in physical theories. For example, the notion that events can be ordered into causes and effects is necessary to prevent (or at least outline) causality paradoxes such as the grandfather paradox, which asks what happens if a time-traveler kills his own grandfather before he ever meets the time-traveler's grandmother. See also Chronology protection conjecture.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "599252",
"title": "Fallacy of the single cause",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 257,
"text": "Causal oversimplification is a specific kind of false dilemma where conjoint possibilities are ignored. In other words, the possible causes are assumed to be \"A or B or C\" when \"A and B and C\" or \"A and B and not C\" (etc.) are not taken into consideration.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "146062",
"title": "Synchronicity",
"section": "Section::::Relationship with causality.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 21,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 21,
"end_character": 573,
"text": "Causality, when defined expansively (as for instance in the \"mystic psychology\" book \"The Kybalion\", or in the platonic Kant-style Axiom of Causality), states that \"nothing can happen without being caused.\" Such an understanding of causality may be incompatible with synchronicity. Other definitions of causality (for example, the neo-Humean definition) are concerned only with the relation of cause to effect. As such, they are compatible with synchronicity. There are also opinions which hold that, where there is no external observable cause, the cause can be internal.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "7506128",
"title": "Retrocausality",
"section": "Section::::Philosophy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 363,
"text": "Philosophical efforts to understand causality extend back at least to Aristotle's discussions of the four causes. It was long considered that an effect preceding its cause is an inherent self-contradiction because, as 18th century philosopher David Hume discussed, when examining two related events, the cause, by definition, is the one that precedes the effect.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
6j4996 | why do vodka sodas dehydrate me? | [
{
"answer": "The metabolism of alcohol requires the presence of water, and alcohol itself is a diuretic which results in less available water in your body. \n\nEdit: To expand on this, the amount of water in your mixed drink is probably insufficient to hold off dehydration after your body has processed the alcohol. Everyone has an individual water requirement to maintain themselves. You may just not be reaching yours when you drink, and have to compensate by drinking more water in the morning. ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "32787",
"title": "Vodka",
"section": "Section::::Health.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 55,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 55,
"end_character": 974,
"text": "In some countries, black-market or \"bathtub\" vodka is widespread because it can be produced easily and avoid taxation. However, severe poisoning, blindness, or death can occur as a result of dangerous industrial ethanol substitutes being added by black-market producers. In March 2007 in a documentary, BBC News UK sought to find the cause of severe jaundice among imbibers of a \"bathtub\" vodka in Russia. The cause was suspected to be an industrial disinfectant (Extrasept) – 95% ethanol but also containing a highly toxic chemical – added to the vodka by the illegal traders because of its high alcohol content and low price. Death toll estimates list at least 120 dead and more than 1,000 poisoned. The death toll is expected to rise due to the chronic nature of the cirrhosis that is causing the jaundice. However, there are also much higher estimates of the annual death toll (dozens or even hundreds of thousands of lives) produced by the vodka consumption in Russia.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "32787",
"title": "Vodka",
"section": "Section::::Today.:Canadian regulations.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 51,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 51,
"end_character": 209,
"text": "Under Canadian regulations, Vodka is a potable alcoholic beverage created by treatment of grain spirit or potato spirit with charcoal, which renders the product without aroma, taste or distinctive character. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "3072051",
"title": "Defensive vomiting",
"section": "Section::::In humans.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 290,
"text": "Vomiting excessive amounts of alcohol is an attempt by the body to prevent alcohol poisoning and death. Vomiting may also be caused by other drugs, such as opiates, or toxins found in some foods and plants. Food allergies and sensitivities, such as lactose intolerance, can cause vomiting.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "24280909",
"title": "Vodka sauce",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 394,
"text": "The vodka's function is, ostensibly, to release flavors in the tomato that are normally inaccessible; using alcoholic beverages for this purpose is common in Italian cooking, although usually accomplished with wine. It is also an emulsifier, serving to keep the sauce stable, when normally the oil of the cream sauce would react with the acidic tomato sauce to separate from the water in both.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "32787",
"title": "Vodka",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 361,
"text": "Vodka ( , ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage that originates from Poland and Russia. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol, but sometimes with traces of impurities and flavorings. Traditionally it is made by distilling the liquid from cereal grains or potatoes that have been fermented, though some modern brands use fruits or sugar as the base.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "61318809",
"title": "Vodka soda",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 335,
"text": "A vodka soda is a mix of one part vodka with about two parts or four parts club soda or naturally-flavored soda, served over large cubed ice in a highball glass, short tumbler, small cocktail glass. A squeeze of lemon or lime juice can also be added. Some variations of the vodka soda include cucumber and mint or raspberry and basil.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "47634420",
"title": "Bismuth subcitrate/metronidazole/tetracycline",
"section": "Section::::Interactions.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 253,
"text": "Metronidazole in combination with alcohol causes severe reactions such as vomiting and flushes in many patients. Tetracycline resorption is reduced by dairy products, antacids and other products containing calcium, magnesium, aluminium as well as iron.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
6wt3dy | why when running on a treadmill usually i'm really tired at 15 min mark, almost dead at 20 min, and ok at 30 min mark ? | [
{
"answer": "I have similar experiences as runner. However, I don't often run on a treadmill so I experience this phenomena on the road. Also, I tend to feel the worst, including feeling out of breath, at the very start of my run. After about a mile my breathing usually regulates itself, however my legs usually still feel far to heavy. \nI have always assumed that I start to feel better after my pulmonary and blood vessels adjust to the strain my opening up, allowing air and blood flow to finally start matching my effort. But I am no scientist. Hell, I am barely conscious, so what do I know?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It actually comes from where your body gets it's energy from. For the first 15-20 minutes your body is burning it's glycogen storage which comes from sugar. After your body has run out of its primary source of energy it runs on fumes until your body starts burning your fat storage. This doesn't kick in until around that 30 minute mark because your body has to turn that fat back into sugar for it to use which takes a while. \n\nSource: avid runner for 10+ year and worked in a running store for almost 8 years and have had to explain this to people lots",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "432986",
"title": "Physical fitness",
"section": "Section::::Exercise.:Aerobic exercise.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 22,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 22,
"end_character": 321,
"text": "BULLET::::- Treadmill training – Many treadmills have programs set up that offer numerous different workout plans. One effective cardiovascular activity would be to switch between running and walking. Typically warm up first by walking and then switch off between walking for three minutes and running for three minutes.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "656548",
"title": "Treadmill",
"section": "Section::::Exercise treadmills.:Disadvantages.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 42,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 42,
"end_character": 281,
"text": "BULLET::::- Some treadmill runners develop bad running habits that become apparent when they return to outdoor running. In particular a short, upright, bouncy gait may result from having no wind resistance and trying to avoid kicking the motor covering with the front of the foot.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "9512700",
"title": "Surfside Beach Marathon",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 315,
"text": "Running on sand may result in slower times, approximately 30 seconds per mile more than the your usual pace, but others say the sand is easier than pavement running and great for long runs. In 2007, Stephen Baumgartner was the first runner to break the 3 hour mark finishing in 2 hours, 55 minutes, and 44 seconds.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1269618",
"title": "Altitude training",
"section": "Section::::Training regimens.:Repeated sprints in hypoxia.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 302,
"text": "In repeated sprints in hypoxia (RSH), athletes run short sprints under 30 seconds as fast as they can. They experience incomplete recoveries in hypoxic conditions. The exercise to rest time ratio is less than 1:4, which means for every 30 second all out sprint, there is less than 120 seconds of rest.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "60362157",
"title": "Steve Birkinshaw",
"section": "Section::::Fell running.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 978,
"text": "After the Wainwrights run, Birkinshaw suffered health problems diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome, saying in an article in \"Fell Runner\" in 2017 that he \"is not sure if he is fully recovered. 'Sometimes I have days when I feel completely normal. Other days I have some \"brain fog\" but it is nowhere near as bad as it was. ... I have done some longer harder runs and sometimes I have felt OK and sometimes I have really struggled. Basically I am happy with where I am. I might recover fully and be able to push it as hard and be as fast as before, but I might never get there. However, I can live a normal life and go out running every day.' \" In July 2018 he accompanied Kilian Jornet on a section of his record-breaking Bob Graham Round (Jornet completed in 12 hours 52 minutes, an hour below the previous record) and reported that \"although I have recovered from my Wainwrights round – which is now four years ago – I am still five to ten per cent slower than I was then.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "9771742",
"title": "North Sea Beach Marathon",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 213,
"text": "Runners must train hard, because running on sand is very demanding on the human body. A difficult portion of the race is Hvide Sande, the sand here feels like deep snow. The timelimit for the marathon is 7 hours.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "944016",
"title": "Fartlek",
"section": "Section::::Comparing other running exercises.:Tempo runs.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 40,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 40,
"end_character": 520,
"text": "Tempo runs are typically run for 20 to 25 minutes at a 6 or 7 RPE. This exercise is “like an Oreo cookie, with the warmup and cooldown as the cookie, and a run at an effort at or slightly above your anaerobic threshold (the place where your body shifts to using more glycogen for energy) as the filling.\" What runners do here is warm up at a slow and steady pace, then run harder than they would on a normal distance jog for an allotted amount of time, and then do a cool down with a very similar speed to the warm up. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
523pi7 | where did the term "fired" originate from? | [
{
"answer": "In the early 1900's at National Cash Register (NCR) there were high-ranking employees who were let go, and they were informed of this by seeing that their desks were carried outside and set on fire.\n\nHence, they got \"fired\".",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[Etymology Online](_URL_0_) says it is recorded by 1885 (with out; 1887 alone) in American English. This probably is a play on the two meanings of discharge (v.): \"to dismiss from a position,\" and \"to fire a gun,\" influenced by the earlier general sense \"throw (someone) out\" of some place (1871). To fire out \"drive out by or as if by fire\" (1520s) is in Shakespeare and Chapman. Fired up \"angry\" is from 1824 (to fire up \"become angry\" is from 1798).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "39408808",
"title": "Feu fiscal",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 435,
"text": "The term \"feu\" (French for \"fire\" from the Latin \"focus\" meaning \"hearth\") meant, especially in the Middle Ages, the hearth, first in the strict sense (the place where the fire burns) and figuratively: the family home (cf. the expression \"without fire or place\") or the family itself. Very quickly, it was used as the basic unit for assessment, calculation, and collection of tax and it was called the \"feu fiscal\" meaning \"fire tax\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2442130",
"title": "Fire arrow",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 521,
"text": "Fire arrows were one of the earliest forms of weaponized gunpowder, being used from the 9th century onward. Not to be confused with earlier incendiary arrow projectiles, the fire arrow was a gunpowder weapon which receives its name from the translated Chinese term \"huǒjiàn\" (火箭), which literally means fire arrow. In China a 'fire arrow' referred to a gunpowder projectile consisting of a bag of incendiary gunpowder attached to the shaft of an arrow. Fire arrows are the predecessors of fire lances, the first firearm.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2185562",
"title": "Human branding",
"section": "Section::::Etymology.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 550,
"text": "The English verb to \"burn\", attested since the 12th century, is a combination of Old Norse \"brenna\" \"to burn, light\", and two originally distinct Old English verbs: \"bærnan\" \"to kindle\" (transitive) and \"beornan\" \"to be on fire\" (intransitive), both from the Proto-Germanic root \"bren(wanan)\", perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root \"bhre-n-u\", from base root \"bhereu-\" \"to boil forth, well up.\" In Dutch, \"(ver)branden\" mean \"to burn\", \"brandmerk\" a branded mark; similarly, in German, \"Brandzeichen\" means \"a brand\" and \"brandmarken\", \"to brand\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2429941",
"title": "Andiron",
"section": "Section::::Etymology.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 263,
"text": "The term \"firedog\" seems to arise from the perceived similarity of an andiron to a dog lying by the fire. In English, however, this form may also have been influenced by French: another French term for an andiron is \"chenet\", which originally meant 'little dog'.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "10680",
"title": "Flaming (Internet)",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 265,
"text": "The term \"flaming\" may originate from \"The Hacker's Dictionary\", which in 1983 defined it as \"\"to speak rabidly or incessantly on an uninteresting topic or with a patently ridiculous attitude\"\". The meaning of the word has diverged from this definition since then.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11145",
"title": "Fire",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 236,
"text": "Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8750146",
"title": "List of Chinese inventions",
"section": "Section::::Shang and later.:F.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 107,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 107,
"end_character": 752,
"text": "BULLET::::- Fire arrow: One of the earliest weaponized forms of gunpowder was the fire arrow which received its name from the translated Chinese term \"huǒjiàn\" (火箭), which literally means fire arrow. In China a 'fire arrow' referred to a gunpowder projectile consisting of a bag of incendiary gunpowder attached to the shaft of an arrow from the 9th century onward. Later on solid fuel rockets utilizing gunpowder were used to provide arrows with propulsive force and the term \"fire arrow\" became synonymous with rockets in the Chinese language. In other languages such as Sanskrit 'fire arrow' (\"agni astra\") underwent a different semantic shift and became synonymous with 'cannon.' Fire arrows are the predecessors of fire lances, the first firearm.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
2kgr77 | What rank would a soldier have to be to avoid going 'over the top' in WWI? | [
{
"answer": "That's a very interesting question, and relates a lot to a common perception that, once a certain level of authority is reached, the individual is less likely to participate in combat.\n\nThat is a very generalised view, of course, and as such not entirely correct. An army is a very rigid organization and must be tightly controlled and led. The closer that leadership is to the fighting, the more effective it can be. The balance, of course is to not expose high ranking leadership to the dangers of the front unnecessarily. Also, the larger formation one commands would dictate having to be further removed from the front on the basis of the scale of numbers a Division, Corps or Army commander would be dealing with.\n\nThere also lies a difference in the role of particular persons-what is known as \"the Divisional Wedge\"- which describes the ratio of those engaged in combat to those supporting combat operations. A Lt Col as a battalion commander would very likely advance with his men, while a Lieutenant assigned to General Headquarters might not ever hear a shot fired in anger. Likewise for NCO's. A farrier Corporal would be well removed from fighting, performing his job of shoeing horses, whilst a Sergeant in an infantry platoon would certainly see his fair share of the war.\n\nMaj Gordon Corrigan illustrates that even high rank did not exempt one from the dangers of the war: \"Altogether four British lieutenant generals, twelve major generals and eighty-one brigadier generals died or were killed between 1914-1918. A further 146 were wounded or taken prisoner. Whatever else the generals were doing, they were certainly not sitting in comfortable chateaux.\" *Mud, Blood and Poppycock* Cassell Press, 2003. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I don’t think there is a simple answer for this question.\n\nCertainly battalion commanders would be expected to participate in an attack, while a Lt. General would almost certainly be at Corps rather than participating in the fighting. Between the two – brigade and divisional command – the activity of the commanding officer would vary according to the local situation and the practice of the officer himself.\n\nBut it wasn’t unknown for higher ranking officers to be killed in action. Even being a Field Marshall was no guarantee of safety – Field Marshall Lord Kitchener was killed when his ship struck a mine and Field Marshall Lord Roberts of Khandahar VC died of pneumonia he contracted this when visiting Indian troops. He refused a great coat, insisting he should not be more comfortable than the troops he was inspecting (As an aside, Roberts career was quite amazing as it encompassed the Duke of Wellington, through to aeroplanes, chemical warfare, and armoured cars).\n\nSome 78 British Generals were killed in action during the war (See Bloody Red Tabs by Davies). The breakdown is given as roughly 40% to shellfire, 30% to small arms fire (half of whom at least half were to snipers) with the rest down to accidents, drowning, or not determined.\n\nThe stats are interesting as overall casualties tended to be much more heavily weighted towards artillery (usual figure given as c60% to artillery), whereas Generals seemed to suffer far more small arms fire and particularly sniper fire. This may just be a statistical artefact due to the low sample size, but it’s likely that Generals visiting the front were prime targets for snipers who could identify them by their clothing and other accoutrements. \n\nOn the other hand, you could be a plain old Lieutenant at GHQ in mid 1915 and never see the front. Staff officers were strongly discouraged from visiting the front as the casualties they incurred early in the war were unsustainable and qualified staff officers were a rare commodity indeed (See Gary Sheffield – Command & Control on the Western Front). \n\nOverall, you were probably better off as a private soldier than an officer.\n\n\n\n",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "As an addendum to my answers below, and a helpful guide to remembering what unit is larger than the other in organisational tables is this mnemonic:\n\n\"Such Pleasant Company Being Right Beside Dedicated Comrades Always\"\n\nfor\n\n\"Section Platoon Company Battalion Regiment Brigade Division Corps Army\" \n\nFor a more detailed treatise on organisational structure, including approximate numbers in a particular formation [please see my essay posted here](_URL_0_)\n\nedit:formatting",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "41709910",
"title": "Armchair general",
"section": "Section::::Alternate usage.:Examples.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 257,
"text": "BULLET::::- Many of the generals of World War I had experience in combat, but only from the days before trench warfare became widespread. Because of this, officers lacked the experience that in the past had made it viable to command troops from a distance.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "33068076",
"title": "W. T. Williams",
"section": "Section::::Biography.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 250,
"text": "During World War II, he served in the Royal Artillery, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, and Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He enlisted as a private (neglecting to inform the military about his degrees) but eventually reached the rank of major.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "905580",
"title": "John Mackenzie (VC)",
"section": "Section::::Further information.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 240,
"text": "He was promoted to major during World War I and was commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment, where at Festubert on 17 May 1915, when leading his men, he was killed just after he had left the jumping off trench.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "7884250",
"title": "Clifford A. Jones",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 288,
"text": "During World War II, Cliff was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. He served in the European theater, in the Third and Ninth Armies, earning four battle stars and a Bronze Star Medal with an oak leaf cluster. By the war's end, he was discharged as a lieutenant colonel.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "13305949",
"title": "William L. Sibert",
"section": "Section::::Military career.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 1086,
"text": "Part of the problem was the Army's promotion system, which continued to cause problems into World War II. The rank a Regular Army officer might hold, and their official rank were not always the same. Thus a \"peacetime rank\" and a \"wartime\" rank differed. An officer might start the war as a lieutenant colonel, end the war as a major general, and then revert to being a lieutenant colonel after the war. Incidentally, pay was not necessarily tied to rank, but depended on time in service and an individuals official rank. In the small Regular Army of 1917, most officers were below the rank of colonel, and few serving in general officer billets actually were recognized by Congress as holding the rank of general, rather, they were \"breveted\" to the higher rank. Actual promotion required Congressional approval, the number of positions limited by law, and was based solely on seniority. Breveting allowed the Army to bypass these restrictions, for better or worse. Thus, the problem of promoting Sibert to brigadier general in the Engineer Corps and the subsequent trouble it caused.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2237801",
"title": "Short stature",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 27,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 27,
"end_character": 379,
"text": "During World War I in Britain, the minimum height for soldiers was . Thus thousands of men under this height were denied the ability to fight in the war. As a result of pressure to allow them entry, special \"Bantam Battalions\" were created composed of men who were to . By the end of the war there were 29 Bantam Battalions of about 1,000 men each. Officers were of normal size.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "22785249",
"title": "Stafford LeRoy Irwin",
"section": "Section::::Biography.:Early life and military career.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 305,
"text": "During World War I he served initially with the 80th Field Artillery Regiment, and then was a student at the U.S. Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he was received promotion to the temporary rank of major but saw no service overseas as the war came to an end on November 11, 1918.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
24juxz | how do some people become the mod of dozens of subreddits? | [
{
"answer": "You'd have to ask the people who made the decision to add them, we don't know. The thought process for each individual mod invite was probably different.\n\nI'm not sure but it's also possible that they did stuff like CSS work. There are some people who do design and CSS stuff for lots of subreddits so they have mod powers, but they don't actually moderate much. We had /u/gavin19 on our staff here for a while while he helped us out with some stuff, for example, and we could have left him on if we wanted even though he never did any moddy work.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3829005",
"title": "Reddit",
"section": "Section::::Site overview.:Users and moderators.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 411,
"text": "Subreddits are overseen by moderators, Reddit users who earn the title by creating a subreddit or being promoted by a current moderator. These moderators are volunteers who manage their communities, set and enforce community-specific rules, remove posts and comments that violate these rules, and generally work to keep discussions in their subreddit on topic. Admins, by contrast, are paid to work for Reddit.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "31027357",
"title": "ModSquad",
"section": "Section::::Operations.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 689,
"text": "Mods take both an active position in forums by acting as the corporate client to provide services, as well as passively looking through the end user experience to monitor social media and quality assurance testing. In active mode, Mods moderate content, chat with customers, manage communities, protect child safety (approved by Safe Kids USA), monitor game experience, provide customer support, check for bugs, and manage social media accounts. Using a variety of Customer Relations Management systems, Mods work from anywhere in the world with secure internet access, enabling native-language services to be provided in 50+ languages and dialects during peak traffic and activity hours.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "31027357",
"title": "ModSquad",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 354,
"text": "ModSquad is a global digital engagement services company based in the United States. The company currently has over 10,000 moderators in its network. ModSquad provides managed, on-demand customer service, content moderation, social media, and community management services and teams across online, e-commerce, in-game, in-app, and social media channels.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "789820",
"title": "Subcontractor",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 548,
"text": "A subcontractor is a company or person who is hired by a general contractor (or prime contractor, or main contractor) to perform a specific task as part of the overall project and is normally paid for services provided to the project by the originating general contractor. While the most common concept of a subcontractor is in building works and civil engineering, the range of opportunities for subcontractor is much wider and it is possible that the greatest number now operate in the information technology and information sectors of business.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "23069200",
"title": "ModNation Racers",
"section": "Section::::Gameplay.:ModSpot.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 545,
"text": "ModSpot is the main lobby area for \"ModNation Racers\". Players can meet up, race, and create and download content. The ModSpot contains Race Station which has Online Race, Quick Race, Split-Screen and Career (Story Mode), Creation Station, where players create their Mods, Karts and Tracks, and also share and shop points, Top Mods, Top Karts and Top Tracks, Coming Attractions to view upcoming DLC, Hot Lap where players can try to earn the best times on a track and a News Update screen. Players can start chats using text, voice or gestures.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "407326",
"title": "Mod (video gaming)",
"section": "Section::::Development.:Motivations of modders.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 33,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 33,
"end_character": 634,
"text": "Mods can be both useful to players and a means of self-expression. Three motivations have been identified by Olli for fans to create mods: to patch the game, to express themselves, and to get a foot in the door of the video game industry. However, it is very rare for even popular modders to make this leap to the professional video game industry. Poor suggests becoming a professional is not a major motivation of modders, noting that they tend to have a strong sense of community, and that older modders, who may already have established careers, are less motivated by the possibility of becoming professional than younger modders.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "3201413",
"title": "Mod DB",
"section": "Section::::Purpose.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 801,
"text": "The purpose of Mod DB is to list the mods, files, tutorials and information of any games that are capable of being modded with user-made content. Community involvement is strongly encouraged, and any game mod with a website is allowed to post a screenshot gallery, news, and requests for help. Scott's intentions, from the beginning, were to get the community heavily involved in the creation and development of the website. To this end, the most active members were chosen as moderators and administrators. The core staff generally remain the same, while lower positions are heavily rotated among trainee moderators, and administrator candidates. The site's staff mostly act as chaperones or librarians, keeping appropriate content available to the public and featuring the more exceptional content.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
4b2jk6 | What was the video-recording format in the USSR/Ex-socialist countries ? Was there an equivalent to VHS ? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not an expert on The Soviet Union but I have a strong interest in and experience with tech. So a Soviet expert may be able to add a lot to the discussion. But to quickly answer your main question, the main format used popularly in the USSR was VHS and the VCR.\n\nThere were other forms of magnetic recording devices used mostly by professionals but I don't know much about them. You seem most interested in personal use though. \n\nAccording to several US news articles the machines first appeared by being brought back by those who had travelled to the West. Demand for the devices began to grow and video parlors had opened by 1985 using the VHS format. \n\nHere's a [link](_URL_0_) to a book called \"Split Signals\" by Ellen Propper Mickiewicz. \n\nThis book was published in 1988 and she wrote about television in the USSR during this time and has a section just on VCR production and usage. Highlighted is a reference to the Elektronika VM-12 which was one of the first Soviet produced VCRs. \n\nElectronika is a brand name used to describe consumer products created by Soviet military industrial engineers. It's still in use today in Belarus. Although according to Mickiewicz the VM-12 was produced in Voronezh a Russian city south of Moscow. \n\nUnfortunately I'm unaware of the ability of these Soviet produced machines to record as well as playback. The way Mickiewicz describes the machines it seems like the government wanted to be able to control what was available and supplant a growing black market for video watching with approved materials. \n\nLinks to contemporary news articles:\n\n\n*[Chicago Tribune](_URL_1_) Discusses early use and has some pretty slanted views on Vodka vs Video as a hobby. \n\n\n*[LA Times](_URL_2_) Discusses copy protection and privacy. \n\n\n*[Baltimore Sun](_URL_3_) Written by a Soviet immigrant to America, it has an interesting personal perspective on the format and the exchange of culture it allowed. \n",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
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{
"wikipedia_id": "799952",
"title": "Videotape format war",
"section": "Section::::Overview.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 670,
"text": "The first video cassette recorder (VCR) to become available was the U-matic system, released in September 1971. U-matic was designed for commercial or professional television production use, and was not affordable or user-friendly for home videos or home movies. The first consumer-grade VCR to be released was the Philips N1500 VCR format in 1972, followed in 1975 by Sony's Betamax. This was quickly followed by the competing VHS format from JVC, and later by Video 2000 from Philips. Subsequently, the Betamax–VHS format war began in earnest. Other competitors, such as the Avco Cartrivision, Sanyo's V-Cord and Matsushita's \"Great Time Machine\" quickly disappeared.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "11437272",
"title": "Compact Video Cassette",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 545,
"text": "Compact Video Cassette (CVC) was one of the first analog recording videocassette formats to use a tape smaller than its earlier predecessors of VHS and Betamax, and was developed by Funai Electronics of Japan for portable use. The first model of VCR for the format was the Model 212, introduced in 1980 by both Funai and Technicolor as they had created a joint venture to manufacture and introduce the format to the home movie market. The system, which included the VCR and a hand held video camera, was very small and lightweight for its time.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "52124",
"title": "VHS",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 263,
"text": "VHS (short for Video Home System) is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes. Developed by Victor Company of Japan (JVC) in the early 1970s, it was released in Japan on September 9, 1976 and in the United States on August 23, 1977.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "566280",
"title": "Video Cassette Recording",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 248,
"text": "Video Cassette Recording (VCR) is an early domestic analog recording format designed by Philips. It was the first successful consumer-level home videocassette recorder (VCR) system. Later variants included the VCR-LP and Super Video (SVR) formats.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1157408",
"title": "VHS-C",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 244,
"text": "Although Video8 acquired a digital variant, Digital8, D-VHS was never adapted to a compact format, as the consumer camcorder industry moved on to small-format MiniDV tapes, then hard-drive- and DVD-based machines, and then solid-state storage.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "304688",
"title": "Video 2000",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 462,
"text": "Video 2000 (also known as V2000, with the tape standard Video Compact Cassette, or VCC) is a consumer videocassette system and analogue recording standard developed by Philips and Grundig to compete with JVC's VHS and Sony's Betamax video technologies. Designed for the PAL colour television standard (some models additionally handled SECAM), distribution of Video 2000 products began in 1979 exclusively in Europe, South Africa and Argentina and ended in 1988.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "799952",
"title": "Videotape format war",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 328,
"text": "The videotape format war was a period of intense competition or \"format war\" of incompatible models of consumer-level analog video videocassette and video cassette recorders (VCR) in the late 1970s and the 1980s, mainly involving the Betamax and Video Home System (VHS) formats. VHS ultimately emerged as the preeminent format.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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}
]
| null |
8vrz47 | ; why can't they just give the 12 boys and the football coach who were found in the cave in thailand oxygen masks so they can swim out? why do they need to teach them to dive or wait for the flood to recede? | [
{
"answer": "There's a lot more to diving than just putting on a mask and swimming. For example, if one of the boys gets scared and holds his breath, then ascends, his lungs could rupture quite easily. They need to make sure that the boys can dive safely before they can use that as an escape method.",
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},
{
"answer": "Cave diving is really dangerous, even for very experienced people. It's VERY dark and very easy to get turned around or end up upside down. It's not like open water diving, it's a whole other skill set and it's incredibly dangerous. \n\nEven if the child were physically attached to the experienced diver, the child could still panic in an enclosed space and wind up drowning both of them. \n\nThey need to be taught how to breath using the respirator and tank, they need to be taught how to navigate and communicate while under water and they need to be taught the basic skills of making a cave dive. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Caves and tunnels are often extremely tight and dirty, which means the water is going to be so cloudy that visibility would be zero. Trying to navigate through dark tunnels, completely blind, without training is suicide. Even trained divers can lose their way, can start to panic (which depletes oxygen even faster), and experience extreme muscle fatigue from long swims. \nThe tunnels in question are four miles long. This is an absolute nightmare, from a diving perspective.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Also to address your point directly... none of the boys can swim. It’s been reported that it’s almost a mile of twisty cave routes out. I’d struggle to swim a mile in those conditions never mind being shit scared, unable to see, hungry, dehydrated and... unable to swim ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Diving is dangerous when your not trained or just comfortable under water with almost zero visibility.\n\nIf they where to give them the crash course in diving they would dive with another professional diver and using the professional divers spare regulator. If victim panics he is a danger to himself and the diver. \n\nThen there is the knowledge of actually breathing correctly on ascend and the fact that it is cave diving. Cave diving is no joke not even for the professionals\n\nThere are so many factors that in effect are so dangerous for both the victims and the rescuer that I understand why the diving plan is the last thing they want to do. \n\nI’m a 10 year CMAS 3 star",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "23425089",
"title": "Doi Nang Non",
"section": "Section::::History.:2018 rescue operation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 579,
"text": "On 23 June 2018, a group of twelve boys aged between 11 and 16, who went to explore Tham Luang Nang Non with their assistant football coach, aged 25, went missing. The group was found 10 days later. They were part of a local junior football team. The cave they entered became flooded. Thai Navy SEAL divers had been searching the caves ever since. Owing to heavy rain which further flooded the cave entrance, searches were periodically interrupted. Thai NAVY divers soon got help from American, Australian, British, and Chinese divers, military members, and emergency personnel.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "57795660",
"title": "Tham Luang cave rescue",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 413,
"text": "In June and July 2018, a widely publicised cave rescue successfully extricated members of a junior football team trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. Twelve members of the team, aged eleven to sixteen, and their 25-year-old assistant coach entered the cave on 23 June after football practice. Shortly afterwards, heavy rains partially flooded the cave, trapping the group inside.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "57795778",
"title": "Tham Luang Nang Non",
"section": "Section::::2018 cave rescue.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 729,
"text": "In 2018, twelve boys aged 11 to 16, all members of a junior association football team, and their 25-year-old male assistant coach were stranded in the cave for 18 days by a flood. They were rescued in a massive joint operation between the Thai government, the Thai military, and a group of international expert cave divers. British divers found them on a muddy ledge in darkness more than from the entrance nine days into their ordeal. The effort to save their lives was a global operation watched around the world. In all, 90 divers – 50 of whom were foreigners – helped to extract the group. An ex-navy diver, Saman Kunan, died during the mission because he ran out of air, having placed air tanks along the route to the boys.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "57795660",
"title": "Tham Luang cave rescue",
"section": "Section::::Timeline.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 97,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 97,
"end_character": 244,
"text": "4 July: The team was taught how to use a full face diving mask and breathing apparatus as none of the boys knew how to swim. Rescue teams worked on continuing to pumping water from the cave, they had already pumped out over 30 million gallons.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "35287938",
"title": "Peik Chin Myaung Cave",
"section": "Section::::Local interest.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 320,
"text": "The local people and many Myanmar pilgrims enjoyed having a good swim at the entrance of the cave. The swallow water flows and cascade from the 600m deep cave. In turns, many locals from Pyin Oo Lwin develop shops with some local products such as wine and dried meat (satt tar chuak) and souvenirs to suit for visitors.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "60111581",
"title": "Richard Harris (anaesthetist)",
"section": "Section::::Tham Luang cave rescue.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 379,
"text": "In June 2018 Harris was about to depart on a cave diving holiday to the Nullabor Plain when he and dive partner Craig Challen were requested by the Thai government, on the advice of British cave diving experts attempting to rescue twelve Thai children and their soccer coach who were trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system, to provide assistance with the rescue efforts.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "9869631",
"title": "Underwater ice hockey",
"section": "Section::::The air holes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
"end_character": 232,
"text": "They are not allowed to play with any kind of breathing apparatus during competitive play. However, some practice with scuba tanks. Majority of the players, who are called apnea divers, freedive often and have prepared accordingly.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
ezutcu | - why is it so hard for companies doing political surveys to actually predict the elections? | [
{
"answer": "Really? The _vast_ majority of polling is very accurate - we just only pay attention to it in the few situations where the polling was \"wrong\".\n\nPolling is difficult because you are trying to take a small sample of people and extrapolate what you learn from them to a population as a whole. Ensuring that the sample is representative of the population is tricky, as is making sure that you get honest answers from those people.\n\nReputable pollsters work very hard to try to eliminate bias in their questions and their samples to make the results as accurate as possible, but they know that anytime you sample you won't get perfect results. That is why they also publish confidence intervals and margins of error - how accurate they feel the polling to be.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "People lie. People refuse to take the survey. The populations polled aren't representative of the population voting. Pollsters weigh one population over the other. Human error in interpreting the data. Polls are run by companies with political agendas. \n\nTake your pick and/or mix and match",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "246066",
"title": "Prediction",
"section": "Section::::Social science.:Opinion polls.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 38,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 38,
"end_character": 311,
"text": "In politics it is common to attempt to predict the outcome of elections via political forecasting techniques (or assess the popularity of politicians) through the use of opinion polls. Prediction games have been used by many corporations and governments to learn about the most likely outcome of future events.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "19333139",
"title": "Political forecasting",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 486,
"text": "Academic scholars have constructed models of voting behavior to forecast the outcomes of elections. These forecasts are derived from theories and empirical evidence about what matters to voters when they make electoral choices. The forecast models typically rely on a few predictors in highly aggregated form, with an emphasis on phenomena that change in the short-run, such as the state of the economy, so as to offer maximum leverage for predicting the result of a specific election.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5101133",
"title": "Google Trends",
"section": "Section::::Implications of data.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 25,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 25,
"end_character": 787,
"text": "A group of researchers at Wellesley College examined data from Google Trends and analyzed how effective a tool it could be in predicting U.S. Congressional elections in 2008 and 2010. In highly contested races where data for both candidates were available, the data successfully predicted the outcome in 33.3% of cases in 2008 and 39% in 2010. The authors conclude that, compared to the traditional methods of election forecasting, incumbency and New York Times polls, and even in comparison with random chance, Google Trends did not prove to be a good predictor of either the 2008 or 2010 elections. Another group has also explored possible implications for financial markets and suggested possible ways to combine insights from Google Trends with other concepts in technical analysis.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "1033935",
"title": "Economic forecasting",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Everything from macroeconomic, microeconomic, market data from the future, machine-learning (artificial neural networks), and human behavioral studies have all been used to achieve better forecasts. Forecasts are used for a variety of purposes. Governments and businesses use economic forecasts to help them determine their strategy, multi-year plans, and budgets for the upcoming year. Stock market analysts use forecasts to help them estimate the valuation of a company and its stock.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "19333139",
"title": "Political forecasting",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 278,
"text": "With the advent of statistical techniques, electoral data have become increasingly easy to handle. It is no surprise, then, that election forecasting has become a big business, for polling firms, news organizations, and betting markets as well as academic students of politics.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "16901331",
"title": "2009 Afghan presidential election",
"section": "Section::::Campaign.:Pre-election polls.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 51,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 51,
"end_character": 346,
"text": "The administering of public opinion polls for the 2009 presidential election was beset by numerous difficulties because of the lack of security, harsh geography, and lack of accurate demographic data, but analysts hoped that with improved sampling techniques the pre-election polls would be more predictive of the outcome than they were in 2004.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1728337",
"title": "The Wisdom of Crowds",
"section": "Section::::Applications.:Prediction markets.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 38,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 38,
"end_character": 310,
"text": "Surowiecki discusses the success of prediction markets. Similar to Delphi methods but unlike opinion polls, prediction (information) markets ask questions like, \"Who do you think will win the election?\" and predict outcomes rather well. Answers to the question, \"Who will you vote for?\" are not as predictive.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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]
}
]
| null |
djivs4 | why is human diet so complex? | [
{
"answer": "A big part is just convienece and choice. Animals with \"higher\" capacity for reason can figure out optimal ways to get food and therefore the option to be picky.\n\nMost animals don't have the range primarily because they're both evolved to live in a certain area and they have a lower count of things that they're required to to on a day to day basis.\n\nMost animals can be lumped into predator/prey and have diets that fit their lifestyle and activities accordingly.\n\nOther animals, like our cousins the chimp which fall into both and have a wider range of day to day activities and behaviors, actually do have a pretty diverse diet. They eat lots of plants but they also eat eggs, honey, meat, etc.\n\nHumans don't really \"NEED\" a diverse diet. We just choose to have one.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "Mostly we have been told it is complex from agriculture lobbyists who created things like the Food Pyramid and other guidelines that aren't based on any science, so they can sell you more non-essential things like cow's milk.\n\nSecondly, advances in processed food have created an entire industry of terrible food with weird ingredients. So we have more complex food and have to understand our diets in more detail in modern society.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "682482",
"title": "Human",
"section": "Section::::Biology.:Diet.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 73,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 73,
"end_character": 648,
"text": "Humans are omnivorous, capable of consuming a wide variety of plant and animal material. Varying with available food sources in regions of habitation, and also varying with cultural and religious norms, human groups have adopted a range of diets, from purely vegan to primarily carnivorous. In some cases, dietary restrictions in humans can lead to deficiency diseases; however, stable human groups have adapted to many dietary patterns through both genetic specialization and cultural conventions to use nutritionally balanced food sources. The human diet is prominently reflected in human culture, and has led to the development of food science.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "215509",
"title": "Paleolithic diet",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 473,
"text": "The digestive abilities of anatomically modern humans, however, are different from those of pre-\"H. s. sapiens\" humans, which has been used to criticize the diet's core premise. During the 2.6 million year-long Paleolithic era, the highly variable climate and worldwide spread of human populations meant that humans were, by necessity, nutritionally adaptable. Supporters of the diet mistakenly presuppose that human digestion has remained essentially unchanged over time.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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{
"wikipedia_id": "215509",
"title": "Paleolithic diet",
"section": "Section::::Rationale and counter-arguments.:Adaptation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 23,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 23,
"end_character": 786,
"text": "The evolutionary discordance is incomplete, since it is based mainly on the genetic understanding of the human diet and a unique model of human ancestral diets, without taking into account the flexibility and variability of the human dietary behaviors over time. Studies of a variety of populations around the world show that humans can live healthily with a wide variety of diets and that humans have evolved to be flexible eaters. Lactose tolerance is an example of how some humans have adapted to the introduction of dairy into their diet. While the introduction of grains, dairy, and legumes during the Neolithic revolution may have had some adverse effects on modern humans, if humans had not been nutritionally adaptable, these technological developments would have been dropped.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "53970984",
"title": "Pleistocene human diet",
"section": "Section::::Background.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 905,
"text": "Due to the variety of environments inhabited, physiologies of the humans and human ancestors alive during the Paleolithic over 2.8 million years, we can’t ascribe a single set diet to any species, regional or cultural group. Increasing amounts of animal protein is viewed by some scientists as essential to the evolution of a larger human brain. Larger brain sizes required a greater caloric intake and the shift from earlier hominins is viewed as a generally greater reliance and shift to more animal protein (Aiello 2009). Meat eating was undoubtedly a factor in the increase in human brain size, but its importance in human diet cannot be assumed across all times and places, and is heavily dependent on the local environment. In colder climates meat might be necessary due to the decreased availability of plant based foods, and in hotter tropical climates a wider range of plants would be available.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "53970984",
"title": "Pleistocene human diet",
"section": "Section::::General trends.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 37,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 37,
"end_character": 1183,
"text": "Many specifics of the evolution of the human diet change regularly as new research and lines of evidence become available. Through the Paleolithic across the last 2.8 million years there has been a pattern of human and human ancestor’s biology adapting to an additionally available food source with resulting greater brain size, with the subsequent broadening and diversification of human diet. \"Homo habilis\" incorporated larger amounts of animal protein and fat into its diet, then as \"Homo erectus\" evolved it increased the breadth of its diet through fire and more advanced tool use. \"Homo sapiens\" in turn evolved the ability to consume cooked starch and marine life, which led to a further increase in brain size then greater technological diversification that ultimately allowed modern humans to adapt to a wide variety of ecological niches. The initial technological and biological adaptations each have knock on effects that allow a greater range of species to be used as food. This culminates in the Neolithic when suites of plants and animals are ultimately domesticated. In short, if there is a clear universal human Paleolithic diet, it is the use of fire to cook food.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "48545380",
"title": "Medieval bioarchaeology",
"section": "Section::::Diet and dental health.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 314,
"text": "Diet is an important area of study for bioarchaeologists because it can reveal many aspects of an individual and the population. The types of foods that were produced and eaten can yield information on how society was structured, on various settlement patterns, and on how healthy or unhealthy the population was.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "182303",
"title": "Food energy",
"section": "Section::::Overview.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 1163,
"text": "Humans and other animals need a minimum intake of food energy to sustain their metabolism and to drive their muscles. Foods are composed chiefly of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, vitamins, and minerals. Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and water represent virtually all the weight of food, with vitamins and minerals making up only a small percentage of the weight. (Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins comprise ninety percent of the dry weight of foods.) Organisms derive food energy from carbohydrates, fats and proteins as well as from organic acids, polyols, and ethanol present in the diet. Some diet components that provide little or no food energy, such as water, minerals, vitamins, cholesterol and insoluble fiber, may still be necessary to health and survival for other reasons. Water, minerals, vitamins, and cholesterol are not broken down (they are used by the body in the form in which they are absorbed) and so cannot be used for energy. Fiber cannot be completely digested by most animals, including humans, who can only extract 2 kcal/g of food energy. Ruminants can extract nearly 4 kcal/g from fiber because of the bacteria in their rumens.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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| null |
2w4gmd | What killed off the mega fauna? | [
{
"answer": "Traditionally this has been ascribed either to the influence of humans on the environment or climate change, although occasionally disease has been tossed around as a hypothesis. Lately, many scientists have been siding with the climate change view.\n\n[This study suggests otherwise.](_URL_0_) It would appear from global analysis of extinctions of megafauna over time that while most of these species had already survived numerous climatic shifts at the time of their demise, nearly all coincided with the earliest evidence of human presence in the area. It seems no accident that (large-bodied) mammoths survived later in North America, and were extinct within a few thousand years of humans reaching the continent.\n\nRemember that most of the species that died off, the 'megafauna' were large creatures with metabolisms that required large amounts of food and had slow gestation and growth rates. Driving them to extinction by hunting wouldn't have required killing every single one, only enough to reduce the population by a little bit each year. The populations would have been particularly devastated if too many females were killed, as we see with modern day elephant populations. Also, the presence of a large population of humans foraging and gathering edible plant material might have reduced the amount of nutrition available to the animals, although I don't know if they would have been enough to have an impact on that or even ate the same vegetation. Certainly a systematic, if slow, reduction of the prey populations would have resulted in a decrease of large predators like dire wolves and cave lions, which probably suited the early humans just fine.\n\nAnother thing to note is that the extinction probably didn't happen very quickly. There would never have been a generation that saw the megafauna disappear. There would have been fewer and fewer mammoths each generation, until finally only grandpa remembered having seen one. The mammoths weren't literally all being slaughtered, they were just having more and more trouble finding mates and being able to maintain a sustainable population.\n\nHope that helps a bit. I'm not an expert on the topic, although I do follow it closely and know a fair bit about it. I've heard evidence supporting both cases and while I see this one as more likely, I don't deny that climate change may well and probably did add to the decrease in megafauna populations.\n\nInteresting fact: the only continent with a diversity of sustainable megafauna populations is Africa, the continent on which humans evolved... Currently, biodiversity of large mammals is at a critical low, thanks to the Pleistocene extinctions. Ecosystems like the Siberian tundra and the American west are barely sustainable because of the absence of the megafauna that were once part of that equilibrium. At least I have read this several times, someone might be able to elaborate or correct me on that.\n\nEdit: you tagged your question as biology, but it might be more accurately tagged as paleontology. I know the paleontology tag doesn't appear in the sidebar, but there is one!",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "314510",
"title": "Dire wolf",
"section": "Section::::Extinction.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 59,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 59,
"end_character": 801,
"text": "During the American megafaunal extinction event around 12,700YBP, 90genera of mammals weighing over became extinct. The extinction of the large carnivores and scavengers is thought to have been caused by the extinction of the megaherbivore prey upon which they depended. The cause of the extinction of the megafauna is debated but has been attributed to the impact of climate change, competition with other species including overexploitation by newly arrived human hunters, or a combination of both. One study proposes that several extinction models should be investigated because so little is known about the biogeography of the dire wolf and its potential competitors and prey, nor how all these species interacted and responded to the environmental changes that occurred at the time of extinction.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "14580",
"title": "Indian Ocean",
"section": "Section::::Biodiversity.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 64,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 64,
"end_character": 564,
"text": "Mammalian megafauna once widespread in the MPA was driven to near extinction in the early 20th century. Some species have been successfully recovered since then — the population of white rhinoceros (\"Ceratotherium simum simum\") increased from less than 20 individuals in 1895 to more than 17,000 as of 2013. Other species are still dependent of fenced areas and management programs, including black rhinoceros (\"Diceros bicornis minor\"), African wild dog (\"Lycaon pictus\"), cheetah (\"Acynonix junatus\"), elephant (\"Loxodonta africana\"), and lion (\"Panthera leo\").\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "162780",
"title": "Megafauna",
"section": "Section::::Megafaunal mass extinctions.:Timing and possible causes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 31,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 31,
"end_character": 330,
"text": "Continuing human hunting and environmental disturbance has led to additional megafaunal extinctions in the recent past, and has created a serious danger of further extinctions in the near future (see examples below). Direct killing by humans, primarily for meat, is the most significant factor in contemporary megafaunal decline.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "18838",
"title": "Mammal",
"section": "Section::::Humans and other mammals.:Threats.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 203,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 203,
"end_character": 634,
"text": "The loss of species from ecological communities, defaunation, is primarily driven by human activity. This has resulted in empty forests, ecological communities depleted of large vertebrates. In the Quaternary extinction event, the mass die-off of megafaunal variety coincided with the appearance of humans, suggesting a human influence. One hypothesis is that humans hunted large mammals, such as the woolly mammoth, into extinction. The 2019 \"Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services\" by IPBES states that the total biomass of wild mammals has declined by 82 percent since the beginning of human civilization.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "320980",
"title": "Genyornis",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 1054,
"text": "Two main theories propose a cause for megafauna extinction - human impact and climate change. A study has been performed in which more than 700 \"Genyornis\" eggshell fragments were dated. Through this, it was determined that \"Genyornis\" declined and became extinct over a short period—too short for it to be plausibly explained by climate change. The authors considered this to be a very good indication that the entire mass extinction event in Australia was due to human activity, rather than climate change. A 2015 study collected egg shell fragments of \"Genyornis\" from around 200 sites that show burn marks. Analysis of amino acids in the egg shells showed a thermal gradient consistent with the egg being placed on an ember fire. The egg shells were dated to between 53.9 and 43.4 thousand years before present, suggesting that humans were collecting and cooking Genyornis eggs in the thousands of years before their extinction. A later study, however, suggests that the eggs actually belonged to the giant malleefowl, a species of extinct megapode.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14208",
"title": "Holocene extinction",
"section": "Section::::Influences.:Competition by humans.:Americas.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 986,
"text": "There has been a debate as to the extent to which the disappearance of megafauna at the end of the last glacial period can be attributed to human activities by hunting, or even by slaughter of prey populations. Discoveries at Monte Verde in South America and at Meadowcroft Rock Shelter in Pennsylvania have caused a controversy regarding the Clovis culture. There likely would have been human settlements prior to the Clovis Culture, and the history of humans in the Americas may extend back many thousands of years before the Clovis culture. The amount of correlation between human arrival and megafauna extinction is still being debated: for example, in Wrangel Island in Siberia the extinction of dwarf woolly mammoths (approximately 2000 BCE) did not coincide with the arrival of humans, nor did megafaunal mass extinction on the South American continent, although it has been suggested climate changes induced by anthropogenic effects elsewhere in the world may have contributed.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14208",
"title": "Holocene extinction",
"section": "Section::::Influences.:Competition by humans.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
"end_character": 670,
"text": "Megafauna were once found on every continent of the world and large islands such as New Zealand and Madagascar, but are now almost exclusively found on the continent of Africa, with notable comparisons on Australia and the islands previously mentioned experiencing population crashes and trophic cascades shortly after the earliest human settlers. It has been suggested that the African megafauna survived because they evolved alongside humans. The timing of South American megafaunal extinction appears to precede human arrival, although the possibility that human activity at the time impacted the global climate enough to cause such an extinction has been suggested.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
1mow4i | ip addresses, subnet masks and why some ip addresses can see others on the same network? | [
{
"answer": "An IPv4 address is just 4 bytes; each number between the dots is in a range of 0 to 255.\n\nTake 192.168.60.1\nIn binary that's 11000000.10101000.00111100.00000001.\n\nNow take a subnet like 255.255.224.0\nIn binary that's 11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000\nNotice how all of the bits are together? The part of the address that identifies the network are where the ones are. The part that describes the address on the network are where the zeros are. This is why it's called a subnet [mask](_URL_0_)\n\nSo, with our previous example\n\n 11000000.10101000.00111100.00000001 - IPv4 Address\n 11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000 - Subnet mask\n 11000000.10101000.00110000.00000000 - Network part (192.168.48.0)\n 00000000.00000000.00001100.00000001 - Node address of node on network",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "172047",
"title": "Classful network",
"section": "Section::::Classful addressing definition.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 21,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 21,
"end_character": 281,
"text": "Today, IP addresses are associated with a subnet mask. This was not required in a classful network because the mask was implied by the address itself; Any network device would inspect the first few bits of the IP address to determine the class of the address and thus its netmask.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14921",
"title": "IP address",
"section": "Section::::Subnetworks.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 464,
"text": "The term \"subnet mask\" is only used within IPv4. Both IP versions however use the CIDR concept and notation. In this, the IP address is followed by a slash and the number (in decimal) of bits used for the network part, also called the \"routing prefix\". For example, an IPv4 address and its subnet mask may be and , respectively. The CIDR notation for the same IP address and subnet is , because the first 24 bits of the IP address indicate the network and subnet.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "149426",
"title": "Subnetwork",
"section": "Section::::Internet Protocol version 4.:Determining the network prefix.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 21,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 21,
"end_character": 257,
"text": "An IPv4 subnet mask consists of 32 bits; it is a sequence of ones (\"1\") followed by a block of zeros (\"0\"). The ones indicate bits in the address used for the network prefix and the trailing block of zeros designates that part as being the host identifier.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8168925",
"title": "Network address",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 382,
"text": "A network address is an identifier for a node or host on a telecommunications network. Network addresses are designed to be unique identifiers across the network, although some networks allow for local, private addresses or locally administered addresses that may not be unique. Special network addresses are allocated as broadcast or multicast addresses. These too are not unique.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14921",
"title": "IP address",
"section": "Section::::Address translation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 69,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 69,
"end_character": 528,
"text": "Multiple client devices can appear to share an IP address, either because they are part of a shared hosting web server environment or because an IPv4 network address translator (NAT) or proxy server acts as an intermediary agent on behalf of the client, in which case the real originating IP address might be masked from the server receiving a request. A common practice is to have a NAT mask a large number of devices in a private network. Only the \"outside\" interface(s) of the NAT needs to have an Internet-routable address.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "149426",
"title": "Subnetwork",
"section": "Section::::Internet Protocol version 4.:Subnet host count.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 35,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 35,
"end_character": 314,
"text": "There is an exception to this rule for 31-bit subnet masks, which means the host identifier is only one bit long for two permissible addresses. In such networks, usually point-to-point links, only two hosts (the end points) may be connected and a specification of network and broadcast addresses is not necessary.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "149426",
"title": "Subnetwork",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 326,
"text": "For IPv4, a network may also be characterized by its subnet mask or netmask, which is the bitmask that when applied by a bitwise AND operation to any IP address in the network, yields the routing prefix. Subnet masks are also expressed in dot-decimal notation like an address. For example, is the subnet mask for the prefix .\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
13rvbb | When accelerating close to c, the universe appears to contract. We see the universe as expanding. Is it possible that this is some related phenomenon and that the universe isn't actually expanding? | [
{
"answer": "No, these are two different phenomena (which are, by the way, both accounted for in the mathematics, so aren't being mistaken for one another!). Two observers who are moving at different speeds will measure lengths differently - this is what you're referring to with contraction - but there's no such set-up in cosmology, we're essentially at rest (in our own reference frame) and watching galaxies and galaxy clusters move away from us in all directions.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Relativistic contraction happens only in the direction of movement. This is not the same as an isotropic expansíon/contraction and can therefore not be confounded.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I too have considered this in the past, but I could not even think of a way that this effect could occur... but its still an interesting thought to entertain.\n\nWith special relativity, a very small constant acceleration or deceleration would in fact create the expansion/contraction effect in a single direction. The interesting thing with the special relativity mechanics is that things further away appear to move much further distances during expansion/contraction. Length contracts as a matter of percentage. This means at a contraction of .0001% per second, something a foot away from your would be unnoticeable. However, something 1000 light years away would appear to be moving immensely fast. This is what we see when we look at the universe expansion, and it is what piqued my interest in the concept.\n\nThe big problem is that length contraction in general relativity doesn't quite work that way. Distances can appear distorted in GR, but not in a way that might cause the entire universe to contract/expand.\n\nI've tried to think of hypothetical scenarios where you might get some sort of similar effect through some local gravitational/spatial manipulation, but I have never really come up with anything. If apparent distance was so easily manipulated by local forces, you'd see some very weird stuff when there was an eclipse, or the planets changed position... the universe would probably also look very different depending on the direction we looked, but of course it does not.\n\nI do agree, that the effect of length contraction in special relativity is very curious. The fact that a local change could have a dramatic effect on the appearance of the universe is very interesting, and so is the similarity to the expansion of the universe... but I can't even a think of a way that they may be related.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "42975",
"title": "Hubble's law",
"section": "Section::::Interpretation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 754,
"text": "Since the Hubble \"constant\" is a constant only in space, not in time, the radius of the Hubble sphere may increase or decrease over various time intervals. The subscript '0' indicates the value of the Hubble constant today. Current evidence suggests that the expansion of the universe is accelerating (\"see\" Accelerating universe), meaning that, for any given galaxy, the recession velocity dD/dt is increasing over time as the galaxy moves to greater and greater distances; however, the Hubble parameter is actually thought to be decreasing with time, meaning that if we were to look at some \"fixed\" distance D and watch a series of different galaxies pass that distance, later galaxies would pass that distance at a smaller velocity than earlier ones.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "10489",
"title": "Edwin Hubble",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 529,
"text": "Hubble provided evidence that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from the Earth, a property now known as \"Hubble's law\", despite the fact that it had been both proposed and demonstrated observationally two years earlier by Georges Lemaître. Hubble-Lemaître's Law implies that the universe is expanding. A decade before, the American astronomer Vesto Slipher had provided the first evidence that the light from many of these nebulae was strongly red-shifted, indicative of high recession velocities.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "42975",
"title": "Hubble's law",
"section": "Section::::Interpretation.:Time-dependence of Hubble parameter.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 65,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 65,
"end_character": 436,
"text": "Another common source of confusion is that the accelerating universe does \"not\" imply that the Hubble parameter is actually increasing with time; since formula_21, in most accelerating models formula_22 increases relatively faster than formula_23, so H decreases with time. (The recession velocity of one chosen galaxy does increase, but different galaxies passing a sphere of fixed radius cross the sphere more slowly at later times.)\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "19604228",
"title": "Dark energy",
"section": "Section::::Implications for the fate of the universe.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 68,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 68,
"end_character": 530,
"text": "Cosmologists estimate that the acceleration began roughly 5 billion years ago. Before that, it is thought that the expansion was decelerating, due to the attractive influence of matter. The density of dark matter in an expanding universe decreases more quickly than dark energy, and eventually the dark energy dominates. Specifically, when the volume of the universe doubles, the density of dark matter is halved, but the density of dark energy is nearly unchanged (it is exactly constant in the case of a cosmological constant).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "921168",
"title": "Scale factor (cosmology)",
"section": "Section::::Detail.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 657,
"text": "Current evidence suggests that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating, which means that the second derivative of the scale factor formula_23 is positive, or equivalently that the first derivative formula_24 is increasing over time. This also implies that any given galaxy recedes from us with increasing speed over time, i.e. for that galaxy formula_25 is increasing with time. In contrast, the Hubble parameter seems to be decreasing with time, meaning that if we were to look at some fixed distance d and watch a series of different galaxies pass that distance, later galaxies would pass that distance at a smaller velocity than earlier ones.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "39136",
"title": "Accelerating expansion of the universe",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 217,
"text": "The accelerating expansion of the universe is the observation that the expansion of the universe is such that the velocity at which a distant galaxy is receding from the observer is continuously increasing with time.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "9075104",
"title": "Dark Energy Survey",
"section": "Section::::Supernovae.:Applications in cosmology.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 23,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 23,
"end_character": 1019,
"text": "To determine if the expansion rate of the universe is speeding up or slowing down over time, cosmologists make use of the finite velocity of light. It takes billions of years for light from a distant galaxy to reach the Earth. Since the universe is expanding, the universe was smaller (galaxies were closer together) when light from distant galaxies was emitted. If the expansion rate of the universe is speeding up due to dark energy, then the size of the universe increases more rapidly with time than if the expansion were slowing down. Using supernovae, we cannot quite measure the size of the universe versus time. Instead we can measure the size of the universe (at the time the star exploded) and the distance to the supernova. With the distance to the exploding supernova in hand, astronomers can use the value of the speed of light along with the theory of General Relativity to determine how long it took the light to reach the Earth. This then tells them the age of the universe when the supernova exploded.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
corpvu | is space observation in real time? | [
{
"answer": "Everything you see is in the past to some degree. Distance and the effects of gravity are the main factors impacting your perception.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "hi so I’m not a scientist by any measure but I’m pretty sure because of the distance we’re actually seeing the stars and planet from the past, as in because of the time it takes light to travel through space we’re seeing things technically from the past. I could be totally wrong bc like I said I don’t know cosmology just seen a couple of Cosmos episodes lol",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "everything we observe is subject to the delay of \\_at least\\_ the speed of light. Even watching a plane overhead has a minuscule delay due to the time it takes the light of that plane going by to reach your eye. It also depends on what we are using to \"observe\" - e.g. different forms of detection use types of signals that have different speeds, so the delay due to the speed of light is the \\_least\\_ delay we can imagine.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The specific event would have been seen roughly 40 minutes after it actually happened.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "everything you see is delayed. you seeing the sun is 8 minutes delayed. you watching the moon is 1.3seconds delayed. you looking at jupiter yesterday was 35-52minutes delayed. you looking at the North star 323 YEARS delayed. when you look thru a telescope at andromeda galaxy, you're looking 2.25 million years delayed\n\nyou reading this text on the screen is 0.0000000001 seconds delayed from when the computer monitor first displayed it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The distance between Jupiter and the Earth is always changing due to their respective orbits. When Earth and Jupiter are closest, it takes 32.7 minutes for us on Earth to see the light from Jupiter. When farthest away from Earth it takes 53.8 minutes.\n\nSo when you look at Jupiter, either with your eye, or through a telescope, you are seeing it as it was a half an hour to an hour in the past.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "18404",
"title": "Lorentz transformation",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 408,
"text": "In each reference frame, an observer can use a local coordinate system (usually Cartesian coordinates in this context) to measure lengths, and a clock to measure time intervals. An event is something that happens at a point in space at an instant of time, or more formally a point in spacetime. The transformations connect the space and time coordinates of an event as measured by an observer in each frame.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "57530133",
"title": "Mental timeline",
"section": "Section::::Rationale.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 558,
"text": "One rationale behind the connection between time and space is that space is an easier concept to understand than time. Space is three dimensional and can be perceived directly using visual sensors, that is, we can physically see a space. In contrast time is one dimensional and can only be perceived indirectly, for example, by seeing that a person has aged, we can infer that time has passed however we do not physically see time. There are many other examples of spatial representations of time around the world such as clocks, calendars and hourglasses. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "37945043",
"title": "La Femme au Cheval",
"section": "Section::::Theoretical underpinnings, 1910–1912.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 29,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 29,
"end_character": 729,
"text": "The concept of observing a subject from different points in space and time simultaneously (multiple or mobile perspective) \"\"to seize it from several successive appearances, which fused into a single image, reconstitute in time\"\" developed by Metzinger (in his article, \"Cubisme et tradition\", Paris Journal, 16 August 1911) and observed in \"La Femme au Cheval\" was not derived from Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, though it was certainly influenced in a similar way, through the work of Jules Henri Poincaré (particularly Science and Hypothesis). Poincaré's writings, unlike Einstein's, were well known leading up to 1912. Poincaré's widely read book, \"La Science et l'Hypothèse\", was published in 1902 (by Flammarion).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "29439514",
"title": "Holometer",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 399,
"text": "Experimental physicist Hartmut Grote of the Max Planck Institute in Germany states that although he is skeptical that the apparatus will successfully detect the holographic fluctuations, if the experiment is successful \"it would be a very strong impact to one of the most open questions in fundamental physics. It would be the first proof that space-time, the fabric of the universe, is quantized.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "37010",
"title": "Philosophy of science",
"section": "Section::::Introduction.:Observation inseparable from theory.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 19,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 19,
"end_character": 1050,
"text": "When making observations, scientists look through telescopes, study images on electronic screens, record meter readings, and so on. Generally, on a basic level, they can agree on what they see, e.g., the thermometer shows 37.9 degrees C. But, if these scientists have different ideas about the theories that have been developed to explain these basic observations, they may disagree about what they are observing. For example, before Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, observers would have likely interpreted an image of the Einstein cross as five different objects in space. In light of that theory, however, astronomers will tell you that there are actually only two objects, one in the center and four different images of a second object around the sides. Alternatively, if other scientists suspect that something is wrong with the telescope and only one object is actually being observed, they are operating under yet another theory. Observations that cannot be separated from theoretical interpretation are said to be theory-laden.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "17384910",
"title": "Observer (special relativity)",
"section": "Section::::\"Observer\" as a form of relative coordinates.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 577,
"text": "Special relativity statements involving an \"observer\" are in some measure articulating a similar kind of impersonal relative direction. An \"observer\" is a \"perspective\" in that it is a context from which events in other inertial reference frames are evaluated but it is not the sort of perspective that a single particular person would have: it is not localized and it is not associated with a particular point in space, but rather with an entire inertial reference frame that may exist anywhere in the universe (given certain lengthy mathematical specifications and caveats.)\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "230488",
"title": "Minkowski space",
"section": "Section::::History.:Minkowski space.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 683,
"text": "In a further development in his 1908 \"Space and Time\" lecture, Minkowski gave an alternative formulation of this idea that used a real time coordinate instead of an imaginary one, representing the four variables of space and time in coordinate form in a four dimensional real vector space. Points in this space correspond to events in spacetime. In this space, there is a defined light-cone associated with each point, and events not on the light-cone are classified by their relation to the apex as \"spacelike\" or \"timelike\". It is principally this view of spacetime that is current nowadays, although the older view involving imaginary time has also influenced special relativity.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
15hf71 | Are there any cells in the human body that don't need oxygen? | [
{
"answer": "Red blood cells! It actually makes quite a bit of sense, because red blood cells exist in order to transport oxygen, and if they required oxygen, they would be much less efficient in that endeavor.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Ninety-nine percent of the bacteria in the gut are anaerobic, meaning that they do not require oxygen. These are housed in your digestive system (notably, the intestines). They are not human cells, but are in the human body.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is one notable exception to the rule that blood carries oxygen to all cells in the body: the [corneas](_URL_0_) absorb oxygen directly from the air (first paragraph, \"The cornea has no blood supply; it gets oxygen directly through the air. Oxygen first dissolves in the tears and then diffuses throughout the cornea to keep it healthy.\").",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5905",
"title": "Chalcogen",
"section": "Section::::Biological role.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 84,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 84,
"end_character": 378,
"text": "Oxygen is needed by almost all organisms for the purpose of generating ATP. It is also a key component of most other biological compounds, such as water, amino acids and DNA. Human blood contains a large amount of oxygen. Human bones contain 28% oxygen. Human tissue contains 16% oxygen. A typical 70-kilogram human contains 43 kilograms of oxygen, mostly in the form of water.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4630125",
"title": "Artificial cell",
"section": "Section::::Clinical relevance.:Artificial blood cell.:Oxygen carriers.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 48,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 48,
"end_character": 266,
"text": "Nano sized oxygen carriers are used as a type of red blood cell substitutes, although they lack other components of red blood cells. They are composed of a synthetic polymersome or an artificial membrane surrounding purified animal, human or recombinant hemoglobin.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "827792",
"title": "Rare Earth hypothesis",
"section": "Section::::Criticism.:Free oxygen may be neither rare nor a prerequisite for multicellular life.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 108,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 108,
"end_character": 909,
"text": "Since Ward & Brownlee's assertion that \"there is irrefutable evidence that oxygen is a necessary ingredient for animal life\", anaerobic metazoa have been found that indeed do metabolise without oxygen. Spinoloricus nov. sp., for example, a species discovered in the hypersaline anoxic L'Atalante basin at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea in 2010, appears to metabolise with hydrogen, lacking mitochondria and instead using hydrogenosomes. Stevenson (2015) has proposed other membrane alternatives for complex life in worlds without oxygen. In 2017, scientists from the NASA Astrobiology Institute discovered the necessary chemical preconditions for the formation of azotosomes on Saturn's moon Titan, a world that lacks atmospheric oxygen. Independent studies by Schirrmeister and by Mills concluded that Earth's multicellular life existed prior to the Great Oxygenation Event, not as a consequence of it.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6030768",
"title": "Robert Lanza",
"section": "Section::::Career.:Stem cell research.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 243,
"text": "Lanza showed that it is feasible to generate functional oxygen-carrying red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells under conditions suitable for clinical scale-up. The blood cells could potentially serve as a source of \"universal\" blood.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2150549",
"title": "Oxidative stress",
"section": "Section::::Production and consumption of oxidants.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 514,
"text": "One source of reactive oxygen under normal conditions in humans is the leakage of activated oxygen from mitochondria during oxidative phosphorylation. However, \"E. coli\" mutants that lack an active electron transport chain produced as much hydrogen peroxide as wild-type cells, indicating that other enzymes contribute the bulk of oxidants in these organisms. One possibility is that multiple redox-active flavoproteins all contribute a small portion to the overall production of oxidants under normal conditions.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "92524",
"title": "Hemeprotein",
"section": "Section::::Hemoglobin and myoglobin.:Hemoglobin.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 520,
"text": "In vertebrates, oxygen is taken into the body by the tissues of the lungs, and passed to the red blood cells in the bloodstream. Oxygen is then distributed to all of the tissues in the body and offloaded from the red blood cells to respiring cells. Hemoglobin then picks up carbon dioxide to be returned to the lungs. Thus, hemoglobin binds and offloads both oxygen and carbon dioxide at the appropriate tissues, serving to deliver the oxygen needed for cellular metabolism and removing the resulting waste product, CO.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "3997",
"title": "Blood",
"section": "Section::::Physiology.:Invertebrates.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 75,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 75,
"end_character": 295,
"text": "In many invertebrates, these oxygen-carrying proteins are freely soluble in the blood; in vertebrates they are contained in specialized red blood cells, allowing for a higher concentration of respiratory pigments without increasing viscosity or damaging blood filtering organs like the kidneys.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
1ggik8 | What were the different techniques used for making swords across different cultures and time periods? | [
{
"answer": "You're not the only one who loves swords! I was just saying the other day how much I miss the old *Highlander* TV series, but anyway... here's my quick round-up of posts discussing sword-making techniques. If anyone remembers any more, add the link as a reply & we'll create an entry in the \"popular questions\" wiki. - thx!\n\n[How quickly did swords become too blunt to be effective during battle?](_URL_6_) (probably my all-time favourite post)\n\n[what is the most effective sword/swordsmithing process that history has seen?](_URL_4_)\n\n[Did any nation/culture even begin to approach the level of sword-making of Japan?](_URL_0_)\n\n[What would be the primary differences between a cheap sword and an expensive sword, taking into account different time periods and methods of manufacture?](_URL_3_)\n\n[Thursday Focus | Weaponry](_URL_1_)\n\n[I just watched a NOVA episode on Ulfberht viking swords. There doesn't seem to be much about them elsewhere. Does anyone know a bit more about them, and maybe others like Ingelrii swords?](_URL_5_)\n\n[Armor and/or weapon making resources? (Books, webpages, documentaries, articles?)](_URL_2_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "32279080",
"title": "Italian martial arts",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 399,
"text": "Italian martial arts is the use of weapons (swords, daggers, walking stick and staff). Each weapon is the product of a specific historical era. The swords used in Italian martial arts range from the gladius of the Roman legionaries to swords which were developed during the renaissance, the baroque era and later. Short blades range from medieval daggers to the liccasapuni Sicilian duelling knife.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "15995094",
"title": "Bhutanese art",
"section": "Section::::Products.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 516,
"text": "The art of sword making falls under the tradition of \"garzo\" (or blacksmithing), an art form that is used to make all metal implements such as swords, knives, chains, darts and so forth. Ceremonial swords are made and gifted to people who are honoured for their achievements. These swords are to be sported by men on all special occasions. Children, wear a traditional short knife known as the \"dudzom\". Terton Pema Lingpa, a religious treasure hunter from central Bhutan, was the most famous sword maker in Bhutan.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "51263",
"title": "Iaijutsu",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 253,
"text": "The development of Japanese swordsmanship as a component system of classical bujutsu created by and for professional warriors (bushi), begins only with the invention and widespread use of the Japanese sword, the curved, single-cutting-edged long sword.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2769445",
"title": "Japanese craft",
"section": "Section::::Metalwork.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 100,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 100,
"end_character": 550,
"text": "Early Japanese iron-working techniques date back to the 3rd to 2nd century BCE. Japanese swordsmithing is of extremely high quality and greatly valued. These swords originated before the 1st century BCE and reached their height of popularity as the chief possession of warlords and \"samurai\". The production of a sword has retained something of the religious quality it once had in symbolizing the soul of the samurai and the martial spirit of Japan.Swordsmithing is considered a separate art form and moved beyond the craft it once started out as. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1884447",
"title": "Korean swordsmanship",
"section": "Section::::Joseon era swordsmanship.:Bon Kuk Geom Beop.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 702,
"text": "\"Native Sword Methods\" (K. \"Bon Kuk Geom Beop\" - 본국검법) is first identified in Korean legends of the Kingdom of Silla, one of the domains comprising \"The Three Kingdoms\" Period (37 BCE – 660 AD). The \"Yuji Sungnam\" relates a story of a seven-year-old boy from the Silla Kingdom who traveled across the Kingdom of Paekshe, demonstrating his \"sword dance\" (\"gummu\") and drawing large crowds. However, when finally summoned to perform his dance before the king, the boy ended his performance by plunging his sword into the king, killing him, and was, in turn, cut down by the king's retainers. In honor of the young boy's sacrifice, the Silla people created a masked sword dance resembling the boy's face.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1520322",
"title": "Waster",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 470,
"text": "The concept of wooden practice weapons is not limited to the historical european martial arts. Some Japanese martial arts involving swordsmanship, such as kenjutsu and iaido, use bokken or shinai as practice weapons. Eskrima, a martial art from the Philippines, also uses a type of rattan stick as a practice weapon in place of a blade. The martial art of singlestick is more or less entirely derived from the use of wasters as practice weapons in place of broadswords.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5409406",
"title": "Bladesmith",
"section": "Section::::Historic bladesmithing.:Chinese.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 821,
"text": "The swordsmiths of China are often credited with the forging technology that was carried to Korea and Japan, allowing swordsmiths in those places to create such weapons as the \"katana\". This technology included folding, inserting alloys, and differential hardening of the edge, which historically has been the most common technique around the world. While the Japanese would be more influenced by the Chinese \"dāo\" (single-edged swords of various forms), the early Japanese swords known as \"ken\" are often based on the \"jian\". One-sided \"jians\" from the Tang dynasty provided the basis for various Japanese forging styles and techniques. The Korean version of the \"jian\" is known as the \"geom\" or \"gum\", and these swords often preserve features found in Ming-era \"jian\", such as openwork pommels and sharply angled tips.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
4iorwl | why do cities restrict the maximum height of structures? | [
{
"answer": "In London, certain view lines are [protected](_URL_0_), which severely limits the options for erecting tall buildings. Not only that but the land London is built on is an unstable river plain, so subsidence is a problem which would be more significant for heavier/taller buildings. Big Ben is tilting because of this.\n\nIn contrast New York has a nice slab of rock underneath it, not too far from the surface, coupled with no restrictions for old buildings like St. Paul's Cathedral. So skyscrapers all over the place!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's quite a few reasons.\n\n* Higher buildings mean a denser downtown core, causing greater traffic and possibly pollution issues as people come to work from bedroom communities and search for a place to park. So unless you have good public transport (which can be quite expensive to build if not in place already), concentrating things too much can be problematic.\n\n* They block light and create major wind tunnels.\n\n* They can go against the character of the place they're in. For example, some Caribbean island residents want to retain their island's quaintness and don't want to turn it into a mass of forty-story condo buildings so they have a \"palm tree maximum height\" rule.\n\n* They can be more prone to safety problems like life-taking fires (e.g. 9-11) or earthquake response.\n\n* The ground underneath them might not be suitably strong enough.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "26210425",
"title": "Self-framing metal buildings",
"section": "Section::::Dimensions.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 23,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 23,
"end_character": 245,
"text": "Building height: 2.5 m (8' +/-) to 7.5 m (24' +/-) is common. Height is primarily limited by the capability of the wall panel to support the wind load. Height may be limited in narrow buildings due to shear capacity limit in the gable endwalls.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "160728",
"title": "George Town, Penang",
"section": "Section::::Geography.:Cityscape.:UNESCO World Heritage Site.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 49,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 49,
"end_character": 247,
"text": "Among the restrictions in force within the zone is a ban on the construction of any structure exceeding in height, and that any new building which is located adjacent to a historically important structure must not exceed the height of the latter.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5932001",
"title": "Height restriction laws",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 462,
"text": "Height restriction laws sometimes become a point of contention in cities due to their use in regulating the growth of the housing supply. Fast growth of housing supply benefits renters by producing low prices and a lot of choice, while slow or no growth in housing supply benefits property owners by allowing them to charge higher prices. In this way, height restriction laws often become part of a class conflict even when their original purpose was innocuous.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "565076",
"title": "Architecture of Montreal",
"section": "Section::::Skyscrapers.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 696,
"text": "Montreal places height-limits on skyscrapers so that they do not exceed the height of Mount Royal. The city forbids any building from reaching an elevation higher than or 223 metres above mean sea level. Above-ground height is further limited in most areas and only a few downtown land plots are allowed to exceed 120 metres in height. The limit is currently attained by 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque, the latter of which is shorter, but built on higher ground. The only way to reach higher than 1000 de La Gauchetière while respecting this limit would be to build on the lowest part of downtown near Tour de la Bourse; the maximum height there would be approximately 210 metres.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "251024",
"title": "Downtown",
"section": "Section::::History.:Zoning.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 1087,
"text": "Ultimately, though, it would not be height limits \"per se\" that restricted skyscrapers, but comprehensive zoning laws which would set up separate requirements for different parts of a city, and would regulate not only height, but also a building's volume, the percentage of the lot used, and the amount of light the building blocked, and would also encourage setbacks to reduce a building's bulk by allowing additional height per foot of setback – the exact amount depending on what zone the building was in. New York City was the first to do this, with the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which was prompted in good part by the construction of the Equitable Building in 1915, a 40-story building with straight sides and no setbacks, which raised fears of the downtown area becoming a maze of dark streets that never saw the sun. What was worse, at least to real estate interests, the building dumped 1.2 million square feet (111,000 m) of office space on what was a sluggish real estate market. To many in the real estate industry, the zoning law was an example of a \"reasonable restriction.\" \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "29485",
"title": "Skyscraper",
"section": "Section::::Definition.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 207,
"text": "The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat defines skyscrapers as those buildings which reach or exceed in height. Others in the United States and Europe also draw the lower limit of a skyscraper at . \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "425280",
"title": "Downtown Los Angeles",
"section": "Section::::Skyline.:Building height limits: 1904-1957.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 117,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 117,
"end_character": 739,
"text": "The first height limit ordinance in Los Angeles was enacted following the completion of the 13-story Continental Building, located at the southeast corner of Fourth and Spring streets. The purpose of the height limit was to limit the density of the city. There was great hostility to skyscrapers in many cities in these years, mainly due to the congestion they could bring to the streets, and height limit ordinances were a common way of dealing with the problem. In 1911, the city passed an updated height limit ordinance, establishing a specific limit of . Exceptions were granted for decorative towers such as those later built on the Eastern Columbia Building and United Artists Theatre, as well as the now-demolished Richfield Tower.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
9a76yf | why are the soles of our feet so sensitive if they’re the main (and often only) point of contact with the ground? | [
{
"answer": "Most likely because you wear shoes which keep your feet baby soft.\n\nMy kids go barefoot a lot and can walk across gravel without a problem.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "That depends on you and how you treat your feet. Skin calluses and hardens as you use it, so you'll have rough spots where you need them and \"normal\" skin where you don't. We tend to wear socks and soft shoes these days and have many more opportunities to sit and relax, so our feet get pampered and stay baby soft. If you needed to run barefoot suddenly, you'd struggle a bit. But over time, your feet would harden, and it would become easier for you as new skin grew in.\n\nI have an awkward callus on the lower knuckle of my right middle finger, because that's where my pen/pencil sits, and I tend to write pretty hard. As a kid, my friend was barefoot all the time at the beach and marina with really rocky/shelly sand and has leather-rough feet that are basically numb to pain. He walked everywhere barefoot and continues to, because he can. Meanwhile, I was always his friend walking around in flip flops or water shoes, because everything was too hot and too sharp.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4654025",
"title": "Sole (foot)",
"section": "Section::::Structure.:Nerve supply.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 21,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 21,
"end_character": 251,
"text": "The soles of the feet are extremely sensitive to touch due to a high concentration of nerve endings, with as many as 200,000 per sole. This makes them sensitive to surfaces that are walked on, ticklish and some people find them to be erogenous zones.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4654025",
"title": "Sole (foot)",
"section": "Section::::Structure.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 572,
"text": "The sole is a sensory organ by which we can perceive the ground while standing and walking. The subcutaneous tissue in the sole has adapted to deal with the high local compressive forces on the heel and the ball (between the toes and the arch) by developing a system of \"pressure chambers.\" Each chamber is composed of internal fibrofatty tissue covered by external collagen connective tissue. The septa (internal walls) of these chambers are permeated by numerous blood vessels, making the sole one of the most vascularized, or blood-enriched, regions in the human body.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "3823623",
"title": "Foot whipping",
"section": "Section::::Overview.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 384,
"text": "As the skin texture under the soles of the feet can naturally endure high levels of strain, injuries demanding medical attention, such as lacerations or bruises, are rarely inflicted if certain precautions are observed by the executant. The undersides of the feet have therefore become a common target for corporal punishment in many cultures while basically different methods exist.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6160922",
"title": "Footprint",
"section": "Section::::Footprints in detective work.:Ridge patterns.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 442,
"text": "Friction ridge skin present on the soles of the feet and toes (plantar surfaces) is as unique in its ridge detail as are the fingers and palms (palmar surfaces). When recovered at crime scenes or on items of evidence, sole and toe impressions can be used in the same manner as finger and palm prints to effect identifications. Footprint (toe and sole friction ridge skin) evidence has been admitted in courts in the United States since 1934.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4020563",
"title": "Foot drop",
"section": "Section::::Signs and symptoms.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 268,
"text": "Patients with painful disorders of sensation (dysesthesia) of the soles of the feet may have a similar gait but do not have foot drop. Because of the extreme pain evoked by even the slightest pressure on the feet, the patient walks as if walking barefoot on hot sand.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "72750",
"title": "Prosthesis",
"section": "Section::::Current technology and manufacturing.:Lower-extremity prosthetics.:Foot.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 117,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 117,
"end_character": 1045,
"text": "Providing contact to the ground, the foot provides shock absorption and stability during stance. Additionally it influences gait biomechanics by its shape and stiffness. This is because the trajectory of the center of pressure (COP) and the angle of the ground reaction forces is determined by the shape and stiffness of the foot and needs to match the subject's build in order to produce a normal gait pattern. Andrysek (2010) found 16 different types of feet, with greatly varying results concerning durability and biomechanics. The main problem found in current feet is durability, endurance ranging from 16–32 months These results are for adults and will probably be worse for children due to higher activity levels and scale effects. Evidence comparing different types of feet and ankle prosthetic devices is not strong enough to determine if one mechanism of ankle/foot is superior to another. When deciding on a device, the cost of the device, a person's functional need, and the availability of a particular device should be considered.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11492",
"title": "Foot",
"section": "Section::::Clinical significance.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 38,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 38,
"end_character": 367,
"text": "Due to their position and function, feet are exposed to a variety of potential infections and injuries, including athlete's foot, bunions, ingrown toenails, Morton's neuroma, plantar fasciitis, plantar warts and stress fractures. In addition, there are several genetic disorders that can affect the shape and function of the feet, including a club foot or flat feet.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
8mpo3x | Did 13th century English knights fight on foot? | [
{
"answer": "This answer focuses on the Anglo-Norman period, so earlier than the 13th century. But since OP was interested in English knights fighting on foot before the 14th century, I guess this will still be of interest. \n \nIn \"Warfare under the Anglo-Norman Kings 1066-1135\", Stephen Morrillo argues that combined arms tactics was central to many battles in this period, and also points out that sometimes dismounted knights played the part of the heavy infantry. In particular, dismounted knights appear in the Battle of Tinchebrai (1106), the Battle of Brémule (1119) and the Battle of Bourgthérolde (1124), although often along mounted knights and other infantry. Although the example of three battles seems to be quite small, considering the fact that battles were rare in this period (Morillo counts 7 battles, C. W. Hollister counts 5 battles of significance), this actually accounts for a significant number of Anglo-Norman battles. \n \nSo why did this dismounting occur? A knight on horseback can easily retreat, while a knight on foot has less chance of escaping a rout unharmed. Forced into this situation, a dismounted knight must either conquer or die. Indeed, this is often the reason given in the sources for the dismounting of knights. Dismounting has a psychological effect, helping to counteract the fear of harm and death that pervaded every battlefield. In particular, having the knights, the military elite, join the battle lines on foot seems to have been massively encouraging to the common infantry as well. Leaders would often be part of the dismounted to further boost morale. For example, King Henry I seemed to have been on foot in the Battle of Tinchebrai and Brémule, and at Bourgthérolde, Odo Borleng was dismounted with the knights under his command. In this case, dismounting can be done to reinforce and stiffen an existing infantry line, instead of making up the entire infantry line themselves. \n \nAs for how the Anglo-Norman army was able to put this into practice, Morillo argues that it stems from the relatively more centralized nature of Anglo-Norman government. He argues that the superiority of medieval cavalry actually stems from the inferior quality of medieval infantry, which requires cohesion brought about by a strong military tradition and/or professional training, both of which were hard to provide in medieval Western Europe. However, due to the more centralized nature of the Anglo-Norman realm and the professionalism of the Famillia Regis (the king's household), there was a strong core force of knights who could function as effective heavy infantry when dismounted. \n \nOn the other hand, in the article \"Battles in England and Normandy, 1066-1154\", Jim Bradbury argues that the dismounting of knights wasn't unique to the Anglo-Normans, but was in fact common in Western Europe. He cites several earlier examples of dismounted knights (such as the Battle of the Dyle in 891) and argues that it grew out of ordinary Frankish tactics, as part of the combined arms response (along with archers and mounted knights) to the threat of a cavalry charge. \n \nThis suggests that the practice of dismounting was not uncommon amongst English knights before the 14th century, an might not even be unique to the English. Dismounting was done as part of a wider combined arms battle plan, and deliberately organised. In these cases, the knights would've fought on foot even when not knocked off their horse, since their horse might not even be on the battlefield to begin with. \n \nSources: \n \n* Stephan Morillo, Warfare under the Anglo-Norman Kings 1066-1135 \n* Stephan Morillo, [The \"Age of Cavalry\" Revisited](_URL_0_) \n* Jim Bradbury, Battles in England and Normandy, 1066-1154 (Part of \"Anglo-Norman Warfare\", edited by Matthew Strickland) ",
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},
{
"answer": "As /u/darthturtle3 has written, knights fighting on foot was very nearly the rule in English warfare from the mid 11th to the mid 12th centuries and was probably part of a larger trend that dates back several centuries. The Anglo-Norman knight, as were their contemporary counterparts and ancestors, was a highly versatile warrior who chose to dismount or charge according to the circumstances he faced.\n\nHowever, by the middle of the 12th century, this had changed substantially. The Battle of Lincoln, in 1141, is probably the last battle of any significance where substantial elements of the army dismounted to fight, though there were obviously some exceptions to this rule as circumstance dictated. However, on the whole, the trend was overwhelming towards knights fighting battles exclusively on horseback.\n\nWhy this occurred is much harder to answer. The tournament began some time in the very late 11th or early 12th century, and reached the height of its popularity in northern France in the 1160s to 1170s. The increased focus on horsemanship and the change in tactics from multiple styles of lance use (over head thrust, uncouched underarm thrust, throwing and couching) a single form (couching) that required considerable training to use properly, in addition to the increasing chivalric tradition, may have reduced the prestige and focus on fighting on foot in general warfare.\n\nAt the same time, there was increasing use of town militias for infantry, and some of these forces became quite skilled at warfare during the period. The arms requirements for service in a town militia, combined with the increased number of men who could afford the equipment due to the increased money economy and overall economic boom may have resulted in sufficiently large bodies of well equipped infantry that dismounting knights to supplement their numbers was no longer considered necessary. Civic pride, the close relationships between the townsmen and the use of town banners could also have increased their willingness and ability to stand up and fight that the morale boost of having knights in the line with them was considered unnecessary. \n\nHowever, these are just theories. We have no clear indication of why fighting on foot was abandoned by knights, just that it occurred. In all the battles fought by the English in the 13th century, knights did not dismount and fight on foot, except during sieges. Even when faced by Welsh and Scottish pike formations, English knights preferred to stay mounted and try to either charge in the hope that the enemy would dissolve in panic or wait until their archers or crossbowmen had thinned the enemy ranks out enough that a charge became viable. It wasn't until after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 that the English knights began to dismount with any frequency (such as Boroughbridge in 1322). \n\nThis was not yet universal, though, and the initial intention of the English during the Weardale Campaign was to charge the Scots on horseback. Only the treacherous terrain and lack of room to make a charge cause the English to dismount and prepare to fight. Though no battle was fought, this suggests that fighting on foot was not yet the primary mode of fighting for English knights. It wasn't until the Battle of Dupplin Moor in 1332 and Halidon Hill in 1333 that we see dismounted men-at-arms as the primary mode of warfare for the English.\n\nAs for your other questions, I'm afraid that I'm also not able to provide an adequate answer.\n\n**References**\n\n*The Great Warbow*, by Matthew Strickland and Robert Hardy\n\n*Tournaments*, by Richard Barker and Juliet Barber\n\n*The Art of Warfare in Western Europe*, by J.F. Verbruggen\n\n*The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel*, tr. Nigel Bryant\n\n*Infantry Warfare in the Fourteenth Century*, by Kelly DeVries",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5427676",
"title": "Cavalry tactics",
"section": "Section::::Riding and fighting on horseback.:Tactics of heavy cavalry using lances.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 850,
"text": "Many knights during Medieval battles fought on foot. Attacks would be carried out on horseback only under favorable conditions. If the enemy infantry was equipped with polearms and fought in tight formations it was not possible to charge without heavy losses. A fairly common solution to this was for the men-at-arms to dismount and assault the enemy on foot, such as the way Scottish knights dismounted to stiffen the infantry \"schiltron\" or the English combination of longbowmen with dismounted men-at-arms in the Hundred Years' War. Another possibility was to bluff an attack, but turn around before impact. This tempted many infantrymen to go on the chase, leaving their formation. The heavy cavalry then turned around again in this new situation and rode down the scattered infantry. Such a tactic was deployed in the Battle of Hastings (1066).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "53466151",
"title": "Battle of Gransee",
"section": "Section::::The battle.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 376,
"text": "According to the chroniclers, it was the foot soldiers who won the day. The knights, fighting on foot, were immobile and vulnerable. The battle swayed to and fro for several hours, and resembled a massacre. Henry caught an axe blow to the helmet in the initial phase of the battle, and had to be supported from the field; but later returned to fight with undiminished vigour.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "15068",
"title": "Infantry",
"section": "Section::::Training.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 57,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 57,
"end_character": 284,
"text": "In medieval times the foot soldiers varied from peasant levies to semi-permanent companies of mercenaries, foremost among them the Swiss, English, Aragonese and German, to men-at-arms who went into battle as well-armoured as knights, the latter of which at times also fought on foot.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "16897",
"title": "Knight",
"section": "Section::::Knightly culture in the Middle Ages.:Tournaments.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 37,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 37,
"end_character": 1025,
"text": "In peacetime, knights often demonstrated their martial skills in tournaments, which usually took place on the grounds of a castle. Knights can parade their armour and banner to the whole court as the tournament commenced. Medieval tournaments were made up of martial sports called \"hastiludes\", and were not only a major spectator sport but also played as a real combat simulation. It usually ended with many knights either injured or even killed. One contest was a free-for-all battle called a \"melee\", where large groups of knights numbering hundreds assembled and fought one another, and the last knight standing was the winner. The most popular and romanticized contest for knights was the \"joust\". In this competition, two knights charge each other with blunt wooden lances in an effort to break their lance on the opponent's head or body or unhorse them completely. The loser in these tournaments had to turn his armour and horse over to the victor. The last day was filled with feasting, dancing and minstrel singing.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "59639",
"title": "Chivalry",
"section": "Section::::History.:The end of chivalry.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 72,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 72,
"end_character": 892,
"text": "During the early Tudor rule in England, some knights still fought for honour and for the good, to protect women and the poor while some others ignored the ethos. There were fewer knights engaged in active warfare because battlefields during this century were generally the area of professional infantrymen, with less opportunity for knights to show chivalry. It was the beginning of the demise of the knight. The rank of knight never faded, but it was Queen Elizabeth I who ended the tradition that any knight could create another and made it exclusively the preserve of the monarch. Christopher Wilkins contends that Sir Edward Woodville, who rode from battle to battle across Europe and died in 1488 in Brittany, was the last knight errant who witnessed the fall of the Age of Chivalry and the rise of modern European warfare. When the Middle Ages were over, the code of chivalry was gone.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11004076",
"title": "Thomas Clifford, 6th Baron Clifford",
"section": "Section::::Life.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 342,
"text": "He and two other English knights challenged three French knights to a tourney in the marches between Boulogne and Calais ; and on 20 June 1390 he procured a safe-conduct through England for William de Douglas, who was coming to the English court with forty knights to a wager of battle with Clifford with reference to certain disputed lands.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "22625066",
"title": "Battle of Valdevez",
"section": "Section::::Course of the conflict.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 1199,
"text": "At Valdevez, the primary combatants on both sides were mounted knights. It is unclear how the battle developed, but it is believed that in order to eliminate the possibility of a mêlée, each monarch selected knights for individual jousting matches, and the battle descended into a hastilude. The need to deal with an Almoravid invasion of the south of his territory may have forced Afonso of Portugal to accept a tournament. Valdevez exemplifies the tendency, noted by Philippe Contamine, of medieval battles between knights to descend \"into a sort of great tourney, half serious, half frivolous.\" At Arcos de Valdevez many prisoners were taken but few lives lost. Besides Ramiro Fróilaz, who is the only nobleman taken at Valdevez mentioned by name in the contemporary \"Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris\", the Portuguese may have captured Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera and the Traba brothers Fernando Pérez and Bermudo Pérez. The Portuguese succeeded in gaining the advantage, by the laws of chivalry of the time, and defeated the Leonese knights. Under these circumstances a peace was concluded and prisoners exchanged. An armistice was signed after the battle that eventually became the Treaty of Zamora.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
78b8ne | how is a modern minted coin ever worth more than its face value, isn't that exactly what money is a guarantee that you money will be what it says it's worth? | [
{
"answer": "....an official currency coinage is only ever worth exactly its face value.\n\nare you thinking about those tv commercials for gold clad coins? those coins are produced by a company named National Mint or something stupid like that. those are collector scams. they're not worth anything.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "32333",
"title": "Coins of the United States dollar",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 648,
"text": "Coins of the United States dollar (aside from those of the earlier Continental currency) were first minted in 1792. New coins have been produced annually and they make up a valuable aspect of the United States currency system. Today, circulating coins exist in denominations of 1¢ (i.e. 1 cent or $0.01), 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, and $1.00. Also minted are bullion (including gold, silver and platinum) and commemorative coins. All of these are produced by the United States Mint. The coins are then sold to Federal Reserve Banks which in turn are responsible for putting coins into circulation and withdrawing them as demanded by the country's economy.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "12987639",
"title": "Zimbabwe Mint",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 237,
"text": "When the Z$500 million mint was commissioned by President Robert Mugabe, it was argued that it would save the country US$50 million in foreign currency because it was costing the country 150 cents to import a 10-cent piece, for example.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "43522631",
"title": "California Diamond Jubilee half dollar",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 353,
"text": "The coins were struck in August 1925 in San Francisco, and were sold the following month. They did not sell as well as hoped: only some 150,000 of the authorized mintage of 300,000 were ever struck, and of that, nearly half went unsold and were melted. The coin is catalogued at between $200 and $1,300, though exceptional specimens have sold for more.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "39740796",
"title": "Gold coin",
"section": "Section::::Counterfeits.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 84,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 84,
"end_character": 383,
"text": "For most of history, coins were valued based on the precious metal they contain. Whether a coin was actually made by the party as claimed was of secondary importance compared to whether it contains the correct amount of metal – that is, correct weight and fineness (purity). Genuine appearance was simply a convenient shortcut to avoid time-consuming tests in everyday transactions.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "51375561",
"title": "Delaware Tercentenary half dollar",
"section": "Section::::Release.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 286,
"text": "A total of 25,000 coins were minted in March 1937 in at the Philadelphia Mint and were sold by the Commission at $1.75 per piece, a relatively high issue price for the time. Of the 25,000 coins minted, 20,978 were sold, with the 4,022 remaining pieces returned to the mint for melting.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "391329",
"title": "Mint (facility)",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 359,
"text": "With the mass production of currency, the production cost is weighed when minting coins. For example, it costs the United States Mint much less than 25 cents to make a quarter (a 25 cent coin), and the difference in production cost and face value (called seigniorage) helps fund the minting body. Conversely, a U.S. penny ($0.01) cost $0.015 to make in 2016.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "374778",
"title": "Dollar coin (United States)",
"section": "Section::::History.:The 1804 dollar.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 26,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 26,
"end_character": 844,
"text": "The 1804 dollar is one of the rarest and most famous coins in the world. Its creation was the result of a simple bookkeeping error, but its status as a highly prized rarity has been established for nearly a century and a half. The silver dollars reported by the mint as being struck in 1804 were actually dated 1803. (With die steel being very expensive in the early 19th century, dies were used until they were no longer in working condition. This is why many early U.S. coins exhibit various kinds of die cracks, occlusions, cuds, clash marks, and other late-state die wear. Nearly every coin the U.S. struck from 1793 to 1825 has an example that was struck in a year other than that which it bears.) No dollars bearing the date 1804 were ever struck in 1804, though this was unknown to mint officials at the time the 1804 dollar came to be.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
2og2ge | In what year and battle did the last recorded charge of knights in heavy armor occur? What conflict last saw widespread use of knights in heavy armor? | [
{
"answer": "The latest charge by armoured cavalry that I know of occurred during the Battle of Mars-La-Tour in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. These were a mixed force of Curassiers (armoured cavalry), Dragoons (mounted rifle men) and Uhlans (light cavalry), who participated in what is today known as Von Bredows death ride. \nThe Curassiers in question wore a half breastplate, which was the common armour for units of that type during that period. Armour weights had been declining in European armies since the 30 years war when The House of Orange and the Duchy of Savoy fielded very heavily armoured \"Totenkopf\" contingents in large numbers.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you by \"knights\" mean armoured cavalry consisting solely of noblemen, then the charge of the Polish crown army consisting of mostly [Polish winged hussars](_URL_0_), although they had stopped wearing the wings at that time, in the Battle of [Kliszow 1702](_URL_1_). The Polish cavalry threw the Swedish cavalry into disorder and then charged the Swedish infantry twice, but was repulsed both times. The Swedish cavalry then attacked and drove the Poles from the field.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There really wasn't a \"last charge by knights in armor.\" Armor simply became (and was perceived as) less effective, and over time, people just left more and more parts of it behind in camp or at home when they went out to fight. Classical, full-body, articulated plate armor was pretty much out of fashion in western Europe by the second quarter of the 1500s, but people kept wearing various bits and pieces of it [right up to and during the beginning of the first world war.](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "16897",
"title": "Knight",
"section": "Section::::Knightly culture in the Middle Ages.:Heraldry.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 40,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 40,
"end_character": 632,
"text": "One of the greatest distinguishing marks of the knightly class was the flying of coloured banners, to display power and to distinguish knights in battle and in tournaments. Knights are generally \"armigerous\" (bearing a coat of arms), and indeed they played an essential role in the development of heraldry. As heavier armour, including enlarged shields and enclosed helmets, developed in the Middle Ages, the need for marks of identification arose, and with coloured shields and surcoats, coat armoury was born. Armourial rolls were created to record the knights of various regions or those who participated in various tournaments.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "221562",
"title": "Jousting",
"section": "Section::::Medieval joust.:High Middle Ages.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 317,
"text": "From the 11th to 14th centuries when medieval jousting was still practised in connection to the use of the lance in warfare, armour evolved from mail (with a solid, heavy helmet, called a \"great helm\", and shield) to plate armour. By 1400, knights wore full suits of plate armour, called a \"harness\" (Clephan 28-29).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8055956",
"title": "Knights Hospitaller",
"section": "Section::::History.:Knights of Cyprus and Rhodes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 23,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 23,
"end_character": 437,
"text": "On Rhodes the Hospitallers, by then also referred to as the Knights of Rhodes, were forced to become a more militarised force, fighting especially with the Barbary pirates. They withstood two invasions in the 15th century, one by the Sultan of Egypt in 1444 and another by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1480 who, after capturing Constantinople and defeating the Byzantine Empire in 1453, made the Knights a priority target.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "595603",
"title": "Coat of arms of Lithuania",
"section": "Section::::History.:Origin.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 211,
"text": "At the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the major victory of the united Polish–Lithuanian army against the Teutonic Order, thirty Lithuanian regiments out of the total forty were flying the \"charging knight\" banner.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "26826113",
"title": "Langeloh",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 232,
"text": "On 28 June 1519 in the village of Langeloh the last knights' battle in Europe - the Battle of Soltau - took place as part of the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud. A force of Hildesheim and Lüneburg troops destroyed the Brunswick-Welf army.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "423946",
"title": "Battle of Harlaw",
"section": "Section::::Battle.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 19,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 19,
"end_character": 681,
"text": "Tradition has it that they faced a force numbering between 1000 and 2000 men, although it was probably several thousand, with significant numbers of knights. Sir Gilbert de Greenlaw died at Harlaw and his tombstone at Kinkell Church gives an idea of how Mar's knights were equipped. Sir Gilbert carries a hand and a half sword and wears an open-faced bascinet helmet with a mail-reinforced arming doublet beneath plate armour. Mar's men also carried spears, maces and battle axes. Tradition has it that the black armour in the entrance hall of Aberdeen's Town House belonged to Robert Davidson, Provost of Aberdeen, who fell in the battle alongside most of the burgesses with him.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1313668",
"title": "Military history of France",
"section": "Section::::Middle Ages.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 18,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 18,
"end_character": 1772,
"text": "In the 11th century, French knights wore knee-length mail and carried long lances and swords. The Norman knights fielded at the Battle of Hastings were more than a match for English forces, and their victory simply cemented their power and influence. Between 1202 and 1343, France reduced England's holdings on the continent to a few small provinces through a series of conflicts including the Bouvines Campaign (1202-1214), the Saintonge War (1242) and the War of Saint-Sardos (1324). Improvements in armor over the centuries led to the establishment of plate armor by the 14th century, which was further developed more rigorously in the 15th century. However, by the late 14th century and the early 15th century, French military power declined during the first part of the Hundred Years' War. New weapons, including artillery, and tactics seemingly made the knight more of a sitting target than an effective battle force, but the often-praised longbowmen had little to do with the English success. Poor coordination or rough terrain led to bungled French assaults. The slaughter of knights at the Battle of Agincourt best exemplified this carnage. The French were able to field a much larger army of men-at-arms than their English counterparts, who had many longbowmen. Despite this, the French suffered about 6,000 casualties compared to a few hundred for the English because the narrow terrain prevented the tactical envelopments envisioned in recently discovered French plans for the battle. The French suffered a similar defeat at the Battle of the Golden Spurs against Flemish militia in 1302. When knights were allowed to effectively deploy, however, they could be more useful, as at Cassel in 1328 or, even more decisively, at Bouvines in 1214 and Patay in 1429.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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]
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| null |
3cs5lp | Another military or logistics question, how does an army pass a mountain, whether it's supposedly impassable or passable? | [
{
"answer": "They (typically. Some people tried some crazy things) just went through known passes, which is why mountains are such great natural defenses. If there are only a small number of passes the defending army knows exactly where their enemy is coming through and can wait for them. Many mountain passes (esp. high mountain passes) are not very wide, either, meaning that armies could only pass through slowly and with great care. It is a pretty dangerous business. \n\nI've been talking about the Mongols too much in this sub recently, but they were going on a raid against Russia and decided to cross the Caucasus Mountains in the middle of the winter. Unfortunately there was only one real passable spot, at Derbent. So they had to \"hire\" (bribe/threaten) guides, but the guides were able to run up ahead and warn everyone on the other side of the mountain that the mongols were coming for an invasion. (Genghis Khan and the Mongol War Machine By Chris Peers). Don't worry, the Mongols win and then kill everyone and terrify all of the Russian Princes for years, but the Mongols also REALLY want to find a better way to get through (they eventually just take over the city of Derbent, which makes it easier). \n",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5330258",
"title": "Army of the Andes",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 512,
"text": "For the crossing of the mountains, the Army was divided into two main columns, the first, commanded by Captain General San Martín and supported by Brigadier Major Miguel Estanislao Soler and Brigadier Bernardo O'Higgins, would take the Los Patos Pass and the second, commanded by Colonel Juan Gregorio de las Heras, would take the Uspallata Pass, which at its highest reaches some twelve thousand feet above sea level. Because this second pass was more negotiable, the artillery was taken in the second column. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "38656627",
"title": "Luca Francesconi",
"section": "Section::::Education.:A student of Karlheinz Stockhausen.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 246,
"text": "\"The mountain is in front of us and it is necessary to pass over it, with enormous force and patience. It's not enough just to contemplate it nor to sneak by it via secondary paths much less go backwards claiming that the mountain is not there.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "360387",
"title": "José de San Martín",
"section": "Section::::South America.:Argentina.:Crossing of the Andes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 37,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 37,
"end_character": 720,
"text": "Contrary to the common understanding, the crossing of the Andes was not the first time that a military expedition crossed the mountain range. The difference from previous operations was the size of the army, and that it had to be ready for combat right after the crossing. The army was divided in six columns, each taking a different path. Colonel Francisco Zelada in La Rioja took the Come-Caballos pass towards Copiapó. Juan Manuel Cabot, in San Juan, moved to Coquimbo. Ramón Freire and José León Lemos led two columns in the south. The bulk of the armies left from Mendoza. San Martín, O'Higgins and Soler led a column across the Los Patos pass, and Juan Gregorio de Las Heras another one across the Uspallata Pass.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1994260",
"title": "Mountain warfare",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 781,
"text": "Mountain ranges are of strategic importance since they often act as a natural border, and may also be the origin of a water source (e.g. Golan Heights – \"water conflict\"). Attacking a prepared enemy position in mountain terrain requires a greater ratio of attacking soldiers to defending soldiers than a war conducted on level ground. Mountains at any time of year are dangerous – lightning, strong gusts of wind, rock falls, avalanche, snow pack, ice, extreme cold, glaciers with their crevasses and the general uneven terrain and the slow pace of troop and material movement are all additional threats to combatants. Movement, reinforcements, and medical evacuation up and down steep slopes and areas where even pack animals cannot reach involves an enormous exertion of energy.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "22859621",
"title": "Mountaineering on Mount Kenya",
"section": "Section::::Walking routes.:Peak Circuit Path.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 30,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 30,
"end_character": 277,
"text": "This is a path around the main peaks, with a distance of about and height gain and loss of over . It can be walked in one day, but more commonly takes two or three. It can also be used to join different ascent and descent routes. The route does not require technical climbing.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "26636391",
"title": "Advantage of terrain",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 638,
"text": "Mountains, for example, can block off certain areas, making it unnecessary to station troops within the inaccessible area. This deployment strategy can be applied with other formidable environmental features as well, such as forests and mountains. In the former instance, dense vegetation can provide concealment for tactical movements such as setting up an ambush. In the latter, the elevation can provide an advantage to soldiers using projectile weapons, such as arrows or artillery pieces. Elevation itself is perhaps the most well-known example of terrain advantage, with gravity working to the advantage of the more elevated party.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6581909",
"title": "Lyskamm",
"section": "Section::::Climbing routes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 443,
"text": "The mountain is often climbed as a traverse from the Feliksjoch (West), to the Lisjoch (East) or vice versa. The traverse consists mostly of a narrow, snow-covered ridge, with some scrambling over rocks. In good conditions, this route is fairly easy and objectively safe, however in bad snow conditions and/or bad visibility, the ridge can be challenging because of large, sometimes double, cornices, mainly on the southern side of the ridge.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
3n8s9n | how does a pro gamer make a living after he / she retires? | [
{
"answer": "This is probably the biggest problem with pro gaming as a whole. Pro gamers have the shortest career of any \"sport\", and the potential fallback isnt much. A good amount of pros have presences on streaming platforms like twitch, so that + the tech experience they have getting a job at a gaming company isnt unreasonable. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's a bit of a tough question to answer as the pro gaming industry hasn't delivered that many retirements so far.\n\nHowever, if they follow a gathering based on not just their skill, but also their personality, they could complete a full career by Twitch (subscriptions, ads, donations) and YouTube (ads, sponsorships, Patreon), even if they can no longer compete at -the- top level.\n\nOr their knowledge on games could indeed land them a job in a gaming company.\n\nIn my opinion it can be compared to \"normal\" sports in this regard, as sports knowledge (- > coach, manager...) or personality (media personality) can allow you to continue your career even after retirement from actual top level competition.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "60301540",
"title": "PC Building Simulator",
"section": "Section::::Gameplay.:Career.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 995,
"text": "In Career mode, the game puts the player in responsibility of a workshop where they must complete tasks that involve modifying pre-built computers, (e.g. removing viruses, adding new parts) or outright building a brand new computer to earn in-game cash, which can be spent on purchasing brand new parts, including computer cases, motherboards, and new processors. As the player completes tasks, the player earns a certain amount of experience points. When a certain amount of experience is reached, the player levels up, in turn unlocking newer, and often, more advanced parts. When ordering computer parts, the player is given the choice to choose between different dates of delivery, the shorter the delivery time, the more cash the player has to pay. The game offers 3 choices: same day delivery, next-day delivery, and 3 to 5 day delivery, for which the player pays an extra 100 dollars, 30 dollars or 10 dollars respectively. A calendar reminds the player of when their parts will arrive. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "24227471",
"title": "Guillaume Patry",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 217,
"text": "According to a report from FOMOS (online professional game media), he's living a life as an ordinary staff member of a company, but he said that he could return to the professional game field after the release of \"\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "10883060",
"title": "A Winner Never Quits",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 281,
"text": "A Winner Never Quits is a 1986 television film based on the true story of baseball player Pete Gray, the first one-armed man ever to play major league baseball, hired in 1943 as a \"freak attraction\" and wartime morale-booster by the Memphis Chicks, Class-A minor league ball club.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "564204",
"title": "Esports",
"section": "Section::::Teams and associations.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 64,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 64,
"end_character": 902,
"text": "Professional gamers, or \"pro gamers\", are often associated with gaming teams and/or broader gaming associations. Teams like FaZe Clan, OpTic Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Team SoloMid, Cloud9, Fnatic, Mineski, Counter Logic Gaming, SK Telecom T1, Splyce, Team EnVyUs, and Natus Vincere consist of several professionals. In addition to prize money from tournament wins, players may also be paid a separate team salary. Team sponsorship may cover tournament travel expenses or gaming hardware. Prominent esports sponsors include companies such as Logitech and Razer. Teams feature these sponsors on their website, team jerseys and on their social media, in 2016 the biggest teams have social media followings of over a million. Associations include the Korean e-Sports Association (KeSPA), the International e-Sports Federation (IeSF), the British esports Association, and the World esports Association (WESA).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "44450014",
"title": "List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise",
"section": "Section::::Players.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 281,
"text": "Only players who are no longer active are listed here. This list does not include active players, or free agents who have not yet retired (such players are listed below). A player is considered \"inactive\" if he has not played baseball for one year or has announced his retirement.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "45670548",
"title": "American expatriate baseball players in Japan",
"section": "Section::::Gaijin waku and cultural differences.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 404,
"text": "Perhaps because of these cultural differences, many expatriate baseball players don't last very long in NPB. Even star players often return home after five or six seasons. Of American expatriate baseball players in Japan, the longest tenures in NPB belong to Tuffy Rhodes (a total of 13 seasons in NPB), Wally Yonamine (12 seasons), Leron Lee (11 seasons), and Leon Lee and Greg Wells (10 seasons each).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "32399",
"title": "Video game developer",
"section": "Section::::Quality of life.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 22,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 22,
"end_character": 418,
"text": "An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining a position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on his or her expertise and experience, averaged roughly $73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $10,000 and $50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
4ili19 | how do spam telemarketers make money since almost everyone just hangs up? | [
{
"answer": "With VOIP and cheap offshore labor, it costs virtually nothing to make those calls - partly *because* no one answers, or hangs up immediately. If you make 10,000 calls - that's every number in an exchange - and get three or four bites, you've made money.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It costs nearly nothing to make a call. They can fail 1,000,000 times before getting a hit and make money.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Currently sitting at my desk working as an IT for a fundraising call center. \n\n & nbsp;\n\nStep one: Dialing systems. I'm actually in the process of compiling data to better configure our rate of dial or CPA (calls per agent). As more people wait to get connected to someone, more calls are made. My goal atm, is to have my agents wait no longer than 30s between calls, but also make sure there are no drops (when you pick up and no one is there. Everyone hates that.)This is just getting people to pick up. lets say on average 35% of people pick up the phone. \n\n & nbsp;\n\nStep 2: People hang up, many do. But, many don't however. Also it's illegal to call cellphones, so generally people at home on lan lines are more likely to be available to talk. Now this where the product often comes in to play. The company I work for does fundraising for things like breast cancer etc. Something more people are willing to hear about than say a TV salesman. \n\n & nbsp;\n\nStep 3: Percentage of donation, this is mainly just for fundraisers. Like any business you have to pay your employees and overhead etc. The server room, dialer software, support, custom databases etc arent cheap (although 2 of my computers use win98 and XP). Hell my salary and I maybe do about 10 hours of real work a week praying the system/database doesn't crash. But they need to pay me just like any other business because if it does their SOL without me. You often hear people complain about these companies that alot is payed to fundraisers. Why do they do it? 20% of a large large pie, is a lot better than 100% of a small pie. A recent article was recently written about my company, and it was funny despite all the poor remarks, at the very bottom the paper inserted the bottom line comment from the fundraiser that they've raised over 40 times the amount of money for their charity by utilizing telemarketers, compared to just raising locally with volunteers. \n\n & nbsp;\n\nIf anyone has any questions I can give some insight. Not as bad of a service than people think, at least with fundraising I should say my expertise is limited to.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "believe me, there are people who buy it. i work for telemarketing before and among the 100 person that i ring up to, about 70% does listen to me for about 30 seconds at least, among these 70%, about 20% sounded more interested, among these 20%, about 90% of them willing to listen to more of what i have and can offer and lastly among the 90%, there are about 30 ~ 50% of them willing to give it a try.\n\nthat is about 2 ~ 4 people per 100 try out my product that i'm selling.\n\nand i get commission for getting them to liaise with the salesperson. which give me $20/pax and that is on top of my pay.\n\nworth it? yes it is. generally i'm getting about $50 per day and i work for 5 hours daily ( 5pm to 10pm ). of course that was where i pick up my sales talking skill, i'm an telecom engineer now and have a running business.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "657291",
"title": "Phone fraud",
"section": "Section::::Types of frauds.:Fraud against customers by third parties.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 26,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 26,
"end_character": 687,
"text": "BULLET::::- Telemarketing fraud takes a number of forms; much like mail fraud, solicitations for the sale of goods or investments which are worthless or never delivered and requests for donations to unregistered charities are not uncommon. Callers often prey upon sick, Disability and elderly persons; scams in which a caller attempts to obtain banking or credit card information also frequently occur. One other variant involves calling a number of business offices, asking for model numbers of various pieces of office equipment in use (such as photocopiers) and sending unsolicited shipments of supplies for the machines, and then billing the victims at artificially inflated prices.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8614306",
"title": "Telemarketing fraud",
"section": "Section::::Types of fraud.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 606,
"text": "BULLET::::- Office supply scam – A very common scam where a telemarketer will target business managers responsible for purchasing office supplies, falsely representing their identity and the cost of office supplies – the most popular being toner. The caller might mislead a company’s employees into thinking that an order for office supplies has already been placed, either by an existing or former colleague, and that they are calling to chase up a signature for the order form to help them keep complete records. The company is then invoiced for unwanted, and overpriced, stationery and office supplies.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2168708",
"title": "American Diabetes Association",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 459,
"text": "The organization has engaged telemarketers at very large costs in the past. In one instance, the ADA entered into contract with InfoCision, a telemarketing firm that works closely with nonprofits, whereby only 15% of the expected funds raised would be given to the ADA with the other 85% being kept by the telemarketing firm. Furthermore, the telemarketers were instructed to lie to prospective donors regarding how much of their donation will go to the ADA.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "162180",
"title": "Telemarketing",
"section": "Section::::Negative perceptions and criticism.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 29,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 29,
"end_character": 608,
"text": "Telemarketing has been negatively associated with various scams and frauds, such as pyramid schemes, and with deceptively overpriced products and services. Fraudulent telemarketing companies are frequently referred to as \"telemarketing boiler rooms\" or simply \"boiler rooms\". Telemarketing is often criticized as an unethical business practice due to the perception of high-pressure sales techniques during unsolicited calls. Telemarketers marketing telephone companies may participate in telephone slamming, the practice of switching a customer's telephone service without their knowledge or authorization.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "162180",
"title": "Telemarketing",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 433,
"text": "Telemarketing (sometimes known as inside sales, or telesales in the UK and Ireland) is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call. Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches programmed to be played over the phone via automatic dialing.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "945461",
"title": "Marketing communications",
"section": "Section::::Direct marketing.:Telemarketing.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 102,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 102,
"end_character": 898,
"text": "Telemarketing is marketing communication via telephone. There are two types of telemarketing: outbound and inbound. Outbound telemarketing is used by organizations to reach out to potential customers, generate sales, make appointments with salespeople and introduce new products. Inbound telemarketing is where people call the organization to complain or inquire about products. Both outbound and inbound can be used as a customer service strategy to boost sales and receive suggestions for improvement. Advantages of telemarketing include targeted communications, flexible and direct interaction between the organization and the customer, it can be an effective personal selling partner and it is cost effective compared to face-to-face contact. A disadvantage is that call centres are usually used to handle outbound and inbound telemarketing, which need to be implemented, managed and financed.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "31578645",
"title": "Plugola",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 446,
"text": "Plugola is the illicit business practice of endorsing a product or service on radio or television for personal gain, without the consent of the network or stations. “Pluggers” have been known to accept bribes of money, alcohol, or free products and services. This contrasts greatly from commercial sponsorship because the benefits of the endorsement go to the individual talent or programmers, while the stations and networks receive no revenue.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
e24fp0 | since inflammation in the body causes numerous fatal diseases(cancer,heart disease, etc.),why can't we just pop a few nsaids like ibuprofen every day and be on our healthy way? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nIt's been recommended for a few decades now.\n\n > Aspirin can help prevent heart attacks in people with coronary artery disease and in those who have a higher than average risk. Only low dose, usually just 81 a day, is needed. But people who think they may be having an attack need an extra 325 mg of aspirin, and they need it as quickly as possible.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Taking too many NSAIDs gives you stomach ulcers for starters. There's lots of side effects to antiinflammatories.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " A recent trial giving NSAIDs to prevent Alzheimers disease was stopped due to \"safety\" i.e. there were a lot of adverse events. Also no apparent benefit 8-(.\n\nNSAIDs raise blood pressure, increase bleeding, and can cause kidney damage in addition to the stomach ulcers mentioned. Kidneys are especially at risk if you are \"volume depleted\" e.g running a marathon.\n\n\nNSAIDs are not innocuous. Prostaglandins rock",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "Inflammation is good when it is needed. You must have good health habits to prevent it from getting out of control.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Inflammation is both a good and a bad thing depend on the context.\n\nInflammation often says somethings wrong and is the body's way of saying \"send help\", and the body respons in various ways such as increased blood flow and immunological response.\n\nOne of the primary ways the body handles inflammation is by prostaglandins, produced by COX 1 & 2 enzymes. (primarily 2 is the target for anti-inflammatory agents).\n\nNSAIDS inhibit the formation of prostaglandins by inhibiting COX enzymes. But by doing so they also CAN affect other things such as blood flow to the kidneys (ibuprofen) or NSAID induced asthma (aspirin). One of their most widely reported and known side effects is blood on the stool from affecting the mucosa in the stomach.\n\nThis is because prostaglandins also serve other functions outside of inflammation. Like most things in the body, one molecule/target can serve multiple functions, and if you're interfering with the chain you end up with side effects.\n\nThey also have a negative effect on the risk of heart disease during prolonged use (etc). \n\nInflammation can be caused by many different things, and NSAIDS may not always be the right kind of treatment for the inflammation depending on the cause and origin.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We barely understand inflammation. Inflammation isn't a like this meter where TOO MUCH = BAD, and TOO LITTLE = BAD. \"Inflammation\" is a generic term used to describe a very large and complex interaction of molecules from different cells in the body. We understand that some of these interactions are very beneficial, and that having excesses (or deficiencies) of some of them can be harmful. The solution isn't to just take steroids or Non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Woah, hold up. Cancer can be cause inflammation as a symptom, but it isn't caused by inflammation. Neither is heart disease, but again, inflammation can be a symptom.\n\nInflammation on its own isn't actually a bad thing. It's a vital part of what's known as the innate immune system - this aspect of the immune system has many features, but it's the one we're born with. It's not very specific, but it's fast, and it can do a whole number of things, including destroying foreign substances (by creating a fever or the phagocytosis, a process in which certain white blood cells engulf and digest the foreign body) and promoting healing. It does the latter primarily in two ways; by increasing blood flow to the injured area and by initiating the secretion of \"repair factors\" to replace damaged tissue.\nInflammation primarily becomes dangerous when it goes unchecked, usually in the case of allergies or a rheumatoid disease. \n\nSo off the bat we can see why getting rid of all inflammation wouldn't be a good idea. But even in cases where we do want to reduce inflammation (it's causing pain, it's overactive and damaging cells) we have to target a specific aspect of inflammation. It's not a singular process, but instead it's a constellation of processes. It's hard to explain without getting super technical, but ibuprofen, as in your example, works by targeting an enzyme involved in the production of certain prostaglandins - hormones involved in regulating the inflammation response as well as inducing fevers.\n\nAnother drug, montelukast, is not remotely related to the NSAID drug category, but is arguably a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug nonetheless. It's used in treatment of chronic asthma, and works by inhibiting leukotrine, an inflammatory factor released by basophils (a type of white blood cell) primarily in the lungs. This reduces a specific inflammation, but is fairly specific. Taking this won't reduce inflammation from, say, a sprained ankle.\n\nHumira, a drug used to treat a number of autoimmune and rheumatoid illnesses, works by inhibiting yet another inflammatory factor called TNF - tumor necrosis factor. TNF can cause fevers, swelling, and apoptosis, aka programmed cell death. In certain illnesses, TNF can cause prolonged inflammation, or can target the wrong cells. But humira still won't prevent swelling from a sprained ankle, because TNF isn't really involved in injury-repair.\n\nSo while inflammation can sometimes be dangerous, it's usually quite helpful, and the kind of inflammation that is cause for concern can't really be helped with NSAIDs like ibuprofen.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "411597",
"title": "Balanitis",
"section": "Section::::Cause.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 217,
"text": "Inflammation has many possible causes, including irritation by environmental substances, physical trauma, and infection such as bacterial, viral, or fungal. Some of these infections are sexually transmitted diseases.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6180485",
"title": "Management of Crohn's disease",
"section": "Section::::Other medications.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 60,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 60,
"end_character": 484,
"text": "Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and naproxen, can cause flares of inflammatory bowel disease in approximately 25% of patients. These flares tend to occur within one week after starting regular use of the NSAID. In contrast, acetaminophen (paracetamol) and aspirin appear to be safe. Celecoxib (Celebrex), a cox-2 inhibitor, also appears to be safe, at least in short-term studies of patients in remission and on medication for their Crohn's disease.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "22279404",
"title": "Superficial thrombophlebitis",
"section": "Section::::Treatment.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
"end_character": 240,
"text": "Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are effective in relieving the pain associated with venous inflammation and were found in a randomized trial to significantly decrease extension and/or recurrence of superficial vein thrombosis.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "70425",
"title": "Inflammation",
"section": "Section::::Inflammatory disorders.:Pharmacological.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 113,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 113,
"end_character": 440,
"text": "Certain drugs or exogenous chemical compounds are known to affect inflammation. Vitamin A deficiency causes an increase in inflammatory responses, and anti-inflammatory drugs work specifically by inhibiting the enzymes that produce inflammatory eicosanoids. Certain illicit drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy may exert some of their detrimental effects by activating transcription factors intimately involved with inflammation (e.g. NF-κB).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "34216089",
"title": "Risk factors for tuberculosis",
"section": "Section::::Silicosis.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 255,
"text": "Some drugs, including rheumatoid arthritis drugs that work by blocking tumor necrosis factor-alpha (an inflammation-causingcytokine), raise the risk of activating a latent infection due to the importance of this cytokine in the immune defense against TB.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "540226",
"title": "Coffee ground vomiting",
"section": "Section::::Causes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 590,
"text": "When attributed to peptic inflammation, use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are commonly implicated. These drugs can interfere with the stomach's natural defenses against the strongly acidic environment, causing damage to the mucosa that can result in bleeding. Therefore, it is recommended that these class of drugs be taken with food or on a full stomach. Other causes of inflammation may be due to severe gastroesophageal reflux disease, \"Helicobacter pylori\" gastritis, portal hypertensive gastropathy or malignancy.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "63791",
"title": "Peptic ulcer disease",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 802,
"text": "Common causes include the bacteria \"Helicobacter pylori\" and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Other less common causes include tobacco smoking, stress due to serious illness, Behcet disease, Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, Crohn disease and liver cirrhosis, among others. Older people are more sensitive to the ulcer-causing effects of NSAIDs. The diagnosis is typically suspected due to the presenting symptoms with confirmation by either endoscopy or barium swallow. \"H. pylori\" can be diagnosed by testing the blood for antibodies, a urea breath test, testing the stool for signs of the bacteria, or a biopsy of the stomach. Other conditions that produce similar symptoms include stomach cancer, coronary heart disease, and inflammation of the stomach lining or gallbladder inflammation.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
34u1uc | How did the Roman people handle military defeats? | [
{
"answer": "How would we know what an \"average citizen\" thought? Every text we have is produced by the elite class. Whether people lost friends or family is impossible to know in the specifics.\n\nWe do know that military disaster did not affect the political careers of the generals involved. Rosenstein in *Imperatores Victi* demonstrates very well that statistically military defeat had little or no impact on the further career of a general. Losing, as long as you got out alive, simply didn't matter.\n\nOn the personal level, among the elite, we do have evidence for friends and family grieving for loved ones. Both Catullus and Propertius write about that. Logically you would by extension think the \"average citizen\" would have similar feelings. There might be stele that can give more of a middle class view of the matter, but I don't know them and I don't have the resources to get them right now.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1406206",
"title": "Battle of Arausio",
"section": "Section::::Aftermath.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 552,
"text": "Rome was a war-faring nation and was accustomed to setbacks. However, the recent string of defeats ending in the calamity at Arausio was alarming for all the people of Rome. The defeat left them not only with a critical shortage of manpower and lost military equipment, but also with a terrifying enemy camped on the other side of the now-undefended Alpine passes. In Rome, it was widely thought that the defeat was due to the arrogance of Caepio rather than to a deficiency in the Roman Army, and popular dissatisfaction with the ruling classes grew.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "314843",
"title": "Campaign history of the Roman military",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 451,
"text": "Despite their formidable reputation and host of victories Roman armies were not invincible. Romans \"produced their share of incompetents\" who led Roman armies into catastrophic defeats. Nevertheless, it was generally the fate of even the greatest of Rome's enemies, such as Pyrrhus and Hannibal, to win the battle but lose the war. The history of Rome's campaigning is, if nothing else, a history of obstinate persistence overcoming appalling losses.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "30855309",
"title": "Roman infantry tactics",
"section": "Section::::Infantry effectiveness.:Victory through attrition.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 175,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 175,
"end_character": 702,
"text": "In their battles against a wide variety of opponents, Rome's ruthless persistence, greater resources and stronger organization wore down their opponents over time. Rome's massive manpower supply was the foundation of this approach. Opponents could be relentlessly weakened and exhausted over the long run. In Spain, resources were thrown at the problem until it yielded over 150 years later—a slow, harsh grind of endless marching, constant sieges and fighting, broken treaties, burning villages and enslaved captives. As long as the Roman Senate and its successors were willing to replace and expend more men and material decade after decade, victory could be bought through a strategy of exhaustion.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1273",
"title": "Augustus",
"section": "Section::::War and expansion.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 107,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 614,
"text": "A prime example of Roman loss in battle was the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, where three entire legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus were destroyed by Arminius, leader of the Cherusci, an apparent Roman ally. Augustus retaliated by dispatching Tiberius and Drusus to the Rhineland to pacify it, which had some success although the battle of AD 9 brought the end to Roman expansion into Germany. Roman general Germanicus took advantage of a Cherusci civil war between Arminius and Segestes; they defeated Arminius, who fled that Battle of Idistaviso in AD 16 but was killed later in 21 due to treachery.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1123369",
"title": "Historiography of the fall of the Western Roman Empire",
"section": "Section::::Theories and explanations of a fall.:Decay owing to general malaise.:Adrian Goldsworthy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 63,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 63,
"end_character": 1222,
"text": "In \"The Complete Roman Army\" (2003) Adrian Goldsworthy, a British military historian, sees the causes of the collapse of the Roman Empire not in any 'decadence' in the make-up of the Roman legions, but in a combination of endless civil wars between factions of the Roman Army fighting for control of the Empire. This inevitably weakened the army and the society upon which it depended, making it less able to defend itself against the growing numbers of Rome's enemies. The army still remained a superior fighting instrument to its opponents, both civilized and barbarian; this is shown in the victories over Germanic tribes at the Battle of Strasbourg (357) and in its ability to hold the line against the Sassanid Persians throughout the 4th century. But, says Goldsworthy, \"Weakening central authority, social and economic problems and, most of all, the continuing grind of civil wars eroded the political capacity to maintain the army at this level.\" Goldsworthy set out in greater detail his theory that recurring civil wars during the late fourth and early fifth centuries contributed to the fall of the West Roman Empire (395-476), in his book \"The Fall of the West: The Slow Death of the Roman Superpower\" (2009).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "25816",
"title": "Roman Republic",
"section": "Section::::Military.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 125,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 125,
"end_character": 364,
"text": "Rome's military secured Rome's territory and borders, and helped to impose tribute on conquered peoples. Rome's armies had a formidable reputation; but Rome also \"produced [its] share of incompetents\" and catastrophic defeats. Nevertheless, it was generally the fate of Rome's greatest enemies, such as Pyrrhus and Hannibal, to win early battles but lose the war.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "487236",
"title": "Hans Delbrück",
"section": "Section::::Hypotheses.:Ancient warfare.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 735,
"text": "Singular conclusions on ancient warfare challenged historiography in so far as he tried to show that the figures for armies in antiquity were inflated in the original sources, and that, contrary to what is stated in most writings, the winner in a battle usually had more troops than the loser. Consequently, he gave completely different interpretations to some of the most famous battles in history, like Marathon, Gaugamela, and Zama by concluding that Rome's vaunted advantage over \"barbarians\" rested, not so much in their discipline and refined tactics, but rather in their superior logistical support. The Romans were able to raise and maintain huge armies on the field, while the \"barbarians\" were unable to match their numbers.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
jkuq4 | the difference between iphone and android, and the pro's and con's of each. | [
{
"answer": "Things Android phones can do *without* being rooted (the same level of permission you currently have on the iPhone):\n\n* Change the keyboard input. [8pen](_URL_1_), [SwiftKey](_URL_0_), and [Swype](_URL_9_) are some good examples.\n* Use any appstore or download apps directly from web pages. The [Amazon AppStore](_URL_10_) even has one free (as in, a 100% discounted) app every day.\n* Put widgets on your home screen, like the HTC clock/weather widgets, calendar widgets, [gReader](_URL_2_) widgets, and battery management/service widgets for turning on/off features like 4G, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. \n* Explore your filesystem with apps like [ASTRO File Manager](_URL_3_).\n* *Admittedly there are fewer games out for Android than iPhone* (in surveys a while back, a statistically significant percentage of people said they got an iPhone primarily for the games) but there is a great family of video game console emulators like [SNESoid](_URL_4_) for the Super NES, NESoid for the NES, and GENSoid for the Sega Genesis among others. \n\nThings you can do *with* a rooted phone:\n\n* Install a custom ROM (an operating system like OSX or Windows 7) like [CM7](_URL_5_).\n* Underclock/overclock the processor to improve battery live or improve performance. \n* Use your phone as a wireless hotspot without paying the extra $25/month for the service.\n* Create comprehensive recovery files (backups) with [Clockwork Mod](_URL_6_). Additionally backup, freeze and delete apps on your phone through [Titanium Backup](_URL_7_).\n\nNo iPhone supports 4G, at least one Android phone now supports Netflix, and Android is [open source](_URL_8_).\n\nBut Steve Jobs and Apple will always be the king of \"it just works.\" So if you want to sacrifice all/most of those features to never have to learn a phone that you'll probably be owning for the next 1 or 2 years, Apple might be the phone for you. I just wanted to enumerate all of the reasons why Android phones are for me.\n\nIf it's any credit to Apple, their products have definitely been successful at bringing space-age technology to the baby boomers. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Things Android phones can do *without* being rooted (the same level of permission you currently have on the iPhone):\n\n* Change the keyboard input. [8pen](_URL_1_), [SwiftKey](_URL_0_), and [Swype](_URL_9_) are some good examples.\n* Use any appstore or download apps directly from web pages. The [Amazon AppStore](_URL_10_) even has one free (as in, a 100% discounted) app every day.\n* Put widgets on your home screen, like the HTC clock/weather widgets, calendar widgets, [gReader](_URL_2_) widgets, and battery management/service widgets for turning on/off features like 4G, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. \n* Explore your filesystem with apps like [ASTRO File Manager](_URL_3_).\n* *Admittedly there are fewer games out for Android than iPhone* (in surveys a while back, a statistically significant percentage of people said they got an iPhone primarily for the games) but there is a great family of video game console emulators like [SNESoid](_URL_4_) for the Super NES, NESoid for the NES, and GENSoid for the Sega Genesis among others. \n\nThings you can do *with* a rooted phone:\n\n* Install a custom ROM (an operating system like OSX or Windows 7) like [CM7](_URL_5_).\n* Underclock/overclock the processor to improve battery live or improve performance. \n* Use your phone as a wireless hotspot without paying the extra $25/month for the service.\n* Create comprehensive recovery files (backups) with [Clockwork Mod](_URL_6_). Additionally backup, freeze and delete apps on your phone through [Titanium Backup](_URL_7_).\n\nNo iPhone supports 4G, at least one Android phone now supports Netflix, and Android is [open source](_URL_8_).\n\nBut Steve Jobs and Apple will always be the king of \"it just works.\" So if you want to sacrifice all/most of those features to never have to learn a phone that you'll probably be owning for the next 1 or 2 years, Apple might be the phone for you. I just wanted to enumerate all of the reasons why Android phones are for me.\n\nIf it's any credit to Apple, their products have definitely been successful at bringing space-age technology to the baby boomers. ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "8841749",
"title": "IPhone",
"section": "Section::::Software.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 146,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 146,
"end_character": 501,
"text": "The iPhone runs an operating system known as iOS (formerly iPhone OS). It is a variant of the Darwin operating system core found in macOS. Also included is the \"Core Animation\" software component from Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard. Together with the graphics hardware (and on the iPhone 3GS, OpenGL ES 2.0), it is responsible for the interface's motion graphics. The iPhone comes with a set of bundled applications developed by Apple, and supports downloading third-party applications through the App Store.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "16161443",
"title": "IOS",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 329,
"text": "iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that presently powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It is the second most popular mobile operating system globally after Android.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "60729516",
"title": "IOS 13",
"section": "Section::::Supported devices.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 34,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 34,
"end_character": 206,
"text": "To further differentiate features between iPhones and iPads, iOS 13 is now specific to the iPhone and iPod touch, and Apple has rebranded the tablet oriented platform with its own operating system, iPadOS.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14260687",
"title": "Mobile operating system",
"section": "Section::::Current software platforms.:Closed source.:iOS.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 345,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 345,
"end_character": 427,
"text": "iOS (formerly named iPhone OS) was created by Apple Inc. It has the second largest installed base worldwide on smartphones, but the largest profits, due to aggressive price competition between Android-based manufacturers. It is closed source and proprietary, and is built on the open source Darwin operating system. The iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and second or third-generation Apple TV all use iOS, which is derived from macOS.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "51664929",
"title": "European Union vs. Google",
"section": "Section::::Android and mobile apps charges.:EU's investigation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 31,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 31,
"end_character": 302,
"text": "Google countered to this investigation that their practices with Android were no different with how Apple, Inc. or Microsoft bundles their own proprietary apps on their respective iOS and Windows Phone, and that OEMs were still able to distribute Android-based phones without the Google suite of apps.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "25970423",
"title": "IPad",
"section": "Section::::Software.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 55,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 55,
"end_character": 830,
"text": "Like the iPhone, with which it shares a development environment the iPad only runs its own software, software downloaded from Apple's App Store, and software written by developers who have paid for a developer's license on registered devices. The iPad runs almost all third-party iPhone applications, displaying them at iPhone size or enlarging them to fill the iPad's screen. Developers may also create or modify apps to take advantage of the iPad's features, and there are onemillion apps optimized for the iPad, . Application developers use iOS SDK for developing applications for iPad. The iPad originally shipped with a customized iPad-only version of iPhone OS, dubbed v3.2. On September 1, it was announced the iPad would get iOS 4.2 by November 2010; to fulfill this Apple released iOS 4.2.1 to the public on November 22.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4182449",
"title": "Tablet computer",
"section": "Section::::Software.:Operating system.:iOS.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 92,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 92,
"end_character": 490,
"text": "The iPad runs on iOS, which was created for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The first iPad was released in 2011. Although built on the same underlying Unix implementation as MacOS, its user interface is radically different. iOS is designed for fingers and has none of the features that required a stylus on earlier tablets. Apple introduced multi-touch gestures, such as moving two fingers apart or together to zoom in or out, also termed \"pinch to zoom\". iOS is built for the ARM architecture.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
15rcvg | Considering all types of movement we're subjected to, how fast are we actually traversing through space at any given point in time? | [
{
"answer": "what is the reference point?\n\nthis question is asked all the time and it's always the same.. \n\n1. Do a search this has been asked before\n\n2. What exactly are we calling our fixed reference point? (the entire universe is in flux)\n",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "All motion is relative to the observer.\n\n > So given a fixed reference point, how fast are we actually going?\n\nThere is no \"fixed reference point.\"",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "297839",
"title": "Time dilation",
"section": "Section::::Velocity time dilation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 463,
"text": "With current technology severely limiting the velocity of space travel, however, the differences experienced in practice are minuscule: after 6 months on the International Space Station (ISS) (which orbits Earth at a speed of about 7,700 m/s) an astronaut would have aged about 0.005 seconds less than those on Earth. The cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Sergei Avdeyev both experienced time dilation of about 20 milliseconds compared to time that passed on Earth.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14220",
"title": "History of mathematics",
"section": "Section::::Medieval European.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 76,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 76,
"end_character": 416,
"text": "Heytesbury and others mathematically determined the distance covered by a body undergoing uniformly accelerated motion (today solved by integration), stating that \"a moving body uniformly acquiring or losing that increment [of speed] will traverse in some given time a [distance] completely equal to that which it would traverse if it were moving continuously through the same time with the mean degree [of speed]\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "37720636",
"title": "Relativistic Lagrangian mechanics",
"section": "Section::::Lagrangian formulation in special relativity.:Coordinate formulation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 34,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 34,
"end_character": 425,
"text": "Since the action is proportional to the length of the particle's worldline (in other words its trajectory in spacetime), this route illustrates that finding the stationary action is akin to finding the trajectory of shortest or largest length in spacetime. Correspondingly, the equations of motion of the particle are akin to the equations describing the trajectories of shortest or largest length in spacetime, \"geodesics\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "28506",
"title": "Spacecraft propulsion",
"section": "Section::::Effectiveness.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 713,
"text": "The rate of change of velocity is called acceleration, and the rate of change of momentum is called force. To reach a given velocity, one can apply a small acceleration over a long period of time, or one can apply a large acceleration over a short time. Similarly, one can achieve a given impulse with a large force over a short time or a small force over a long time. This means that for manoeuvring in space, a propulsion method that produces tiny accelerations but runs for a long time can produce the same impulse as a propulsion method that produces large accelerations for a short time. When launching from a planet, tiny accelerations cannot overcome the planet's gravitational pull and so cannot be used.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "50506253",
"title": "Locomotion in space",
"section": "Section::::Kinematics of locomotion in space.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 73,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 73,
"end_character": 250,
"text": "Gravity has a large influence on walking speed, muscle activity patterns, gait transitions and the mechanics of locomotion, which means that the kinematics of locomotion in space need to be studied in order to optimize movements in that environment.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "43564883",
"title": "Oles Semernya",
"section": "Section::::Artist's Words in eternity.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 32,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 32,
"end_character": 257,
"text": "We can assume that I'm moving, not in space, but only just in time. Transitional corridor so narrow! Do not overtake, not to lag behind, just went through stops moving. When I stop moving, stepping over me ... Holt is not – there are only fellow travelers!\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "455295",
"title": "Sub-orbital spaceflight",
"section": "Section::::Speed, range, and altitude.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 275,
"text": "If one's goal is simply to \"reach space\", for example in competing for the Ansari X Prize, horizontal motion is not needed. In this case the lowest required delta-v, to reach 100 km altitude, is about 1.4 km/s. Moving slower, with less free-fall, would require more delta-v.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
73pmti | why does spain have strong, independent cultures (i.e. basque, catalonia) while other european nations seem to be more culturally and linguistically uniform? | [
{
"answer": "Well, the Scots and some other parts of the UK might not agree with that.\n\nSpain was assembled by a more recent war, and the Franco dictatorship didn't really accomplish much harmony.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "While I don't disagree with your question, let me find you some examples which invalidate it:\n\n- Belgium is part French part Dutch, different languages, different traditions, different cultures.\n\n- Yugoslavia, but that was only a stable country under Tito.\n\n- Turkey and its Kurdistan part.\n\n- UK (or was it GB?) and Scotland and Northern-Ireland.\n\n- The former east and west parts of Germany, still cultural very different.\n\n- Czech and Slovakia were split up in the late 1990s IIRC.\n\n- Italy and Sicily.\n \n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The Bavarians would disagree. High German and Low German exist somewhere in there. As would the Sicilians. Parisians. And asking if that applies to Northern Ireland and Ireland Ireland just ends up with a fight. Don't people still speak Welsh in some places? \n\nHere in the states we've got the hoosiers up north that are practically swedish-canadian. The creole types down in Louisiana. Every part of NYC used to have their own flavor, but Brooklyn has deeper roots apparently. California is a mess, but thank GOD that valley-girl cliche went out of style. And they can all bow before the midwestern accent which is widely acknowledged to be \"American Standard English\". Alll y'alls people dun be talkin' funny-likes.\n\nOf course that's all being taken over by Spanish. ",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "they dont. sicilian , neopolitan tuscan in italy . in fact much of europe have lesser known areas.. ask a parisian.. thier dialect different from someone from nice or provance",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Other nations in Europe aren't more culturally and linguistically uniform. It's just that the tensions in Spain right now are violent and more extreme. This is likely due to some 20th century historical events. Spain had an extremely ugly and deadly, some would say genocidal, civil war in the 1930s. It was won by the fascists, led by Francisco Franco. He was a brutal dictator and ruled Spain from 1939 until 1975 when he died. There was a lot of unhappiness and repression in Spain during those years. This exacerbated tensions between Catalonia and the Basque regions and their feelings for being part of Spain. There are 7 Basque regions in Europe--4 are in Spain, 3 are in France. There have been tensions between these Basque regions and the government of the nation they are in. But the tensions are far greater between the Basques in Spain and the Spanish government, than there are between the French and the Basques living in France. I mean, it's a popular fantasy/dream/wish among all the Basques to have their own nation. But the Spanish Basques are more violent and more active in their separatism than the French Basques. The reason can probably be attributed to the French Basques experiencing less repression and violence than the Spanish Basques, so they're less angry. And they have less to gain by being separatists since their lives aren't as bad overall and they didn't have, for example, the same language repression in France that the Basques in Spain had. The situation for the Spanish improved greatly following Franco's death but the independence movements were already established. Lately, there have been various economic problems in Spain so that has heated up the discontent that residents of Catalonia feel.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5888447",
"title": "Castilian Spanish",
"section": "Section::::Difference with American Spanish.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 358,
"text": "However, some traits of the Spanish spoken in Spain are exclusive to that country, and for this reason, courses of Spanish as a second language often neglect them, preferring Mexican Spanish in the United States and Canada whilst European Spanish is taught in Europe. Spanish grammar and to a lesser extent pronunciation can vary sometimes between variants.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "26667",
"title": "Spain",
"section": "Section::::Culture.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 252,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 252,
"end_character": 631,
"text": "Spain is a Western country. Almost every aspect of Spanish life is permeated by its Roman heritage, making Spain one of the major Latin countries of Europe. Spanish culture is marked by strong historic ties to Catholicism, which played a pivotal role in the country's formation and subsequent identity. Spanish art, architecture, cuisine, and music have been shaped by successive waves of foreign invaders, as well as by the country's Mediterranean climate and geography. The centuries-long colonial era globalised Spanish language and culture, with Spain also absorbing the cultural and commercial products of its diverse empire.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "55002",
"title": "Autonomous communities of Spain",
"section": "Section::::History.:Background.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 479,
"text": "However, unlike in other European countries such as France, where regional languages were spoken in rural areas or less developed regions, two important regional languages of Spain were spoken in some of the most industrialized areas, which, moreover, enjoyed higher levels of prosperity, in addition to having their own cultures and historical consciousness. These were the Basque Country and Catalonia. This gave rise to peripheral nationalisms along with Spanish nationalism.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5553546",
"title": "Toledo School of Translators",
"section": "Section::::History.:Background.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 1104,
"text": "Spain's multi-cultural richness beginning in the era of Umayyad dynasty rule in that land (711-1031) was one of the main reasons why European scholars were traveling to study there as early as the end of the 10th century. As the Arabic-speaking rulers who initially came in 711 intermingled and intermarried with local populations, the co-existence of Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and the local Romance vernacular had seen the emergence of new pidgin vernaculars and bilingual song forms, as well as the creation of new bodies of literature in Arabic and Hebrew. The environment bred multi-lingualism. This era saw the development of a large community of Arabic-speaking Christians (known as Mozarabs) who were available to work on translations. But translating efforts were not methodically organized until Toledo was reconquered by Christian forces in 1085. The new rulers inherited vast libraries containing some of the leading scientific and philosophical thought not only of the ancient world, but of the Islamic east, the cutting edge of scientific discourse of the era—and it was all largely in Arabic.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "940236",
"title": "Hispanophone",
"section": "Section::::Countries.:Europe.:Spain.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 684,
"text": "The existence of multiple distinct cultures in Spain allows an analogy to be drawn to the United Kingdom. Using the term Spanish for someone of Spanish descent would then be expected to be equivalent to using Briton to describe someone descending from some part of the United Kingdom. Cultures within the United Kingdom, such as English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, would then correspond in this analogy to cultures within Spain such as Castilian, Catalan, Galician and Basque among others. In contrast with Spain, because of centuries of gradual and mutual consolidation across the Iberian Peninsula, such distinctions tend to be blurred. It is a subtle, yet important, distinction.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "40265247",
"title": "Antisemitism in Spain",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 1202,
"text": "According to some, derived from the fact that almost all Spaniards are Catholic, and Spain remains to this day one of the most homogeneous Western countries, Spanish Judeophobia reflects a national obsession with religious and ethnic unity which is based on the conception of an imaginary \"internal enemy\" plotting the downfall of the Catholic religion and the traditional social order. However, this assumption clashes with the fact that 21st-century Spain is one of the most secularized countries in Europe, with only 3% of Spaniards considering religion as one of their three most important values and thus not linking it to their national or personal identity. Furthermore, in modern Spain there is not an \"internal enemy\" scare but in far-right circles, which are more often focused against Muslim immigration as well as Catalan and Basque separatism, way more visible phenomena. Modern antisemitic-like attitudes in Spain are actually related to the perceived abusive policies of the State of Israel against Palestinians and in the international scene rather than to any kind of religious or identity obsession, and it has been defined by Jewish authors as an \"antisemitism without antisemites.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "56120",
"title": "Hispanic",
"section": "Section::::Culture.:Music.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 66,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 66,
"end_character": 731,
"text": "Folk and popular dance and music also varies greatly among Hispanics. For instance, the music from Spain is a lot different from the Hispanic American, although there is a high grade of exchange between both continents. In addition, due to the high national development of the diverse nationalities and regions of Spain, there is a lot of music in the different languages of the Peninsula (Catalan, Galician and Basque, mainly). See, for instance, Music of Catalonia or Rock català, Music of Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias, and Basque music. Flamenco is also a very popular music style in Spain, especially in Andalusia. Spanish ballads \"romances\" can be traced in Argentina as \"milongas\", same structure but different scenarios.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
2gqah2 | why do guys insist on sending unsolicited dick pictures. does that ever really work? | [
{
"answer": "Because it gets them off. Depends on which side of the scale between mother superior and super-horny fairy-queen the recipient is.\n\nSource: I'm the latter, generally speaking.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Men are very visual creatures, and quick to arouse. A man can go from no arousal to immediately turned on just with a quick flash of a girl's boobs. As a result of this nature, many men don't grasp that women don't work the same way, and aren't interested much in seeing a dick unless already aroused.\n\nCombine that with the general negative effect that arousal tends to have on your ability to make good decisions, and you have horny men sending what they think are arousing pictures to someone who is in no mood for them.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "11475024",
"title": "Snuff (Palahniuk novel)",
"section": "Section::::Plot.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 818,
"text": "\"Snuff\" follows three men who are waiting to immortalize themselves into pornography history as they wait to bed Cassie Wright, a former porn queen who has fallen into harder times. Each chapter follows a different guy (Mr. 600, Mr. 72, and Mr. 137), as well as Sheila, the female wrangler who dictates who is the next to be filmed with Cassie Wright. As the three men wait, each starts to divulge their true reasons for wanting to be filmed, as well as discuss the sordid history of Cassie Wright and her reason for suddenly dropping out of the pornography industry for a year. As backgrounds, secrets, and would-be children start to appear, the tensions in the room start to rise and in the end the true secrets of her comeback, and who really is Cassie Wright's porn child, are the last things any of them suspect.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "30415302",
"title": "Carrot or Stick (House)",
"section": "Section::::Plot.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 1074,
"text": "Also, Chase faces some personal troubles after a full-frontal nude photo of him, photoshopped to make his penis look much shorter than it is, is posted on his own social networking website. His password (which was unsafely set to 'password') is changed as well, so he is unable to modify the contents himself. He suspects one of the girls he had sex with after a wedding (episode 8, \"Small Sacrifices\") has taken the photo out of revenge for his lack of interest the morning after. He tracks down all the girls but each of them professes their innocence. In the end, he remembers that the sister of one of the girls he slept with was in the same room that night. When he goes and looks for her it appears he already chatted with her one time. She tells him that he seemed like a nice guy but when she told him she didn't do sex after one date, he ran. After that she felt he needed a lesson. She eventually gives him the new password, so Chase can finally repair his own profile. Chase then apologizes and asks her on a real date without sex, to which she happily declines.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "7963632",
"title": "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race",
"section": "Section::::Music video.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 27,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 27,
"end_character": 409,
"text": "It transfers to Pete, at a photo shoot. The photographer takes a cell phone from his coworker and takes pictures with it, and prompts Pete to show his penis, making it look like Pete took them (in reference to real cell phone photos leaked from Pete's cell phone after he took them to send to his girlfriend). Several teenage girls are outraged after they see the pictures and realize Pete has a small penis.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "52834080",
"title": "Unsplash",
"section": "Section::::License.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 278,
"text": "The lack of attribution for Unsplash photos has been the subject of controversy among photography circles, due to some companies using free Unsplash photography for profit without compensating the photographers. Unsplash itself has stated that it does not support the practice.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8594116",
"title": "Dick in a Box",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 459,
"text": "\"Dick in a Box\" is the debut single by American comedy troupe The Lonely Island, featuring singer Justin Timberlake. The song and music video debuted on \"Saturday Night Live\" as an \"SNL\" Digital Short on December 16, 2006. The video depicts two early-1990s R&B ballad singers Andy (Andy Samberg) and Raif (Timberlake) crooning a holiday song about making a gift for their girlfriends of their penises wrapped in boxes (strategically placed) topped with bows.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14683918",
"title": "Look (2007 film)",
"section": "Section::::Postcard controversy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 587,
"text": "During the first week of April 2009, the United States Postal Service announced that they were unwilling to deliver promotional postcards made for \"Look\". The postcard advertisements depict a man with his boxers around his ankles in the midst of sexual intercourse with a woman in a generic mail room setting, as captured on a hidden camera. The nudity in the image is not blatant but the postal service has characterized the content as obscene. The postcard image is headlined by the caption: \"It is LEGAL for your company to get permission to install HIDDEN CAMERAS IN THE WORKPLACE!\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "21958806",
"title": "The Temp (film)",
"section": "Section::::Plot.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 793,
"text": "Peter confronts Kris with this revelation, but she yet again denies everything and states that the photo is a means for single office women like her to discourage male co-workers from hitting on them. (Note: throughout the entire film, whenever Kris is caught in a lie about her past or work, she makes up a whole new lie on the spur of the moment to replace or patch up the old lie). Peter, however, refuses to believe her anymore. He is now aware that Kris is a master manipulator and sociopath, but also aware that he will never be able to prove that Kris was responsible for all the deaths and incidents at the company nor will she ever admit to any wrongdoing. Peter decides to remove Kris the old fashioned way: he fires Kris and orders her detained until the police can escort her out.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
8yhsaf | how did early man manage to drink the recommended 2 litres of water a day without access to clean water and remain strong enough to maintain his active lifestyle? | [
{
"answer": "The \"recommended\" is a bullshit number brought on by lobbyists.\n\nHave you noticed how much you urinate when you drink so much water? Your body purges excess water.\n\nDrink when you're thirsty. Not because you're on a goddamn schedule.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The recommended two litres of water a day is junk science invented by drinks manufacturers to sell more products. Actual scientists say you should drink when thirsty, and not drink when not thirsty (unless you are sick or actually dehydrated).\n\nClean water was difficult to find, and at first humans settled wherever they could find fresh water. Later, they learned how to dig wells, giving them access to more fresh water.\n\nOf course, by our standards, the water wasn't exactly clean. But people had immune systems to cope: being exposed to all the common pathogens very early in life helped give people the immunity they needed.\n\nIt was still possible to pick up parasites through the water, though, so it wasn't totally safe, and infant mortality in particular was very high. But the human race compensated for that by not having birth control in those days: those that did survive childhood could usually go on to live long and relatively healthy lives (the average life expectancy of around 40 is so low because of the high infant mortality, and because of constant wars and battles).\n\nThis is where beer comes in. Beer is mentioned in Ancient Egypt, although it was quite different from modern beer. Essentially, it was liquid bread, with a much lower alcohol content than we're used to now, so it could be given to children. In mediaeval Europe it was an important supplement to a peasant's diet (the belief that beer is considered a \"foodstuff\" in Bavaria is a complete urban myth, but not an implausible one). The process of brewing the beer killed off most of the germs and parasites, and the alcohol killed off the rest.\n\nBasically, a combination of humans not actually needing as much water as the Coca-Cola Corp wants you to believe, a more robust immune system, and the discovery of the brewing process.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Definitely difficult, unless you lived near a river, lake, water reserve, mountain, watery crops (melon or the like), collected rain water, ice, or had slaves/pesants gathering water for you. Maybe they didn’t get their “recommended” two liters. Maybe you can live just drinking 1 L a day, although it might not be optimum.\n\nI believe you loss your ability to feel thirsty when you age. This is why old people die from dehydration during summertime. They simply forget to drink... so maybe its fine to drink a recommended amount.\n\nIn Denmark the water is almost free. Our land is filled with tremendous amounts of extreme pure water. Our non-profit health organization recommends (as a rule of thumb) that you drink 1/3 you weight in deciliters. For instance if you weigh 60 kg you should drink 20 dL which corresponds to 2 L. Off course you should drink a little more when you exercise or when its hot and visa versa.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1091948",
"title": "Survival skills",
"section": "Section::::Water.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 32,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 32,
"end_character": 544,
"text": "A typical person will lose minimally two to maximally four liters of water per day under ordinary conditions, and more in hot, dry, or cold weather. Four to six liters of water or other liquids are generally required each day in the wilderness to avoid dehydration and to keep the body functioning properly. The U.S. Army survival manual does not recommend drinking water only when thirsty, as this leads to underhydrating. Instead, water should be drunk at regular intervals. Other groups recommend rationing water through \"water discipline\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "7409382",
"title": "Water politics",
"section": "Section::::Water as a critical resource.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 901,
"text": "According to the WHO, each human being requires a bare minimum of 20 litres of fresh water per day for basic hygiene; this equals 7.3 cubic metres (about 255 ft) per person, per year. Based on the availability, access and development of water supplies, the specific usage figures vary widely from country to country, with developed nations having existing systems to treat water for human consumption, and deliver it to every home. At the same time however, some nations across Latin America, parts of Asia, South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East either do not have sufficient water resources or have not developed these or the infrastructure to the levels required. This occurs for many varied reasons. It has resulted in conflict and often results in a reduced level or quantity of fresh water per capita consumption; this situation leads toward disease, and at times, to starvation and death.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "239926",
"title": "Water treatment",
"section": "Section::::Portable water purification.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 31,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 31,
"end_character": 293,
"text": "Living away from drinking water supplies often requires some form of portable water treatment process. These can vary in complexity from the simple addition of a disinfectant tablet in a hiker's water bottle through to complex multi-stage processes carried by boat or plane to disaster areas.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1091948",
"title": "Survival skills",
"section": "Section::::Water.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 31,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 31,
"end_character": 578,
"text": "A human being can survive an average of three to five days without the intake of water. The issues presented by the need for water dictate that unnecessary water loss by perspiration be avoided in survival situations. The need for water increases with exercise.Since the human body is composed of up to 78% water, it should be no surprise that water is higher on the list than fire or food. Ideally, a person should drink about a gallon of water per day. Many lost persons perish due to dehydration, and/or the debilitating effects of water-born pathogens from untreated water.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "12218756",
"title": "Khao-I-Dang",
"section": "Section::::Camp services.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 264,
"text": "Provision of adequate food and water was a major logistical problem. Water was brought in each day by trucks from supply areas one to two hours away. Water was rationed to 10–15 liters per person per day in the camp and 50–60 liters per hospitalized patient/day).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "39683831",
"title": "Water supply and sanitation in Gibraltar",
"section": "Section::::Under British rule.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 18,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 18,
"end_character": 1198,
"text": "As Garrison-Quartermaster Lt. William Hume put it, \"the inhabitants owe nothing to the British Government for the small supply of water they have had for 150 years ... it would appear that from our conquest in 1704 down to within the last 15 years, nothing was done to collect water or to increase the supply, nothing whatsoever.\" The Commission concluded that the existing water supply was \"bad, deficient, and costly\", that drainage was \"defective\" to \"very bad\" and that sanitation was \"most offensive and dangerous to health\" for the 16,000 inhabitants and 6,000–7,000 members of the garrison. The water allowances per head were so low that it was \"just as if the garrison were in a state of siege\" and were \"utterly incommensurate to the soldiers' wants in such a climate.\" A chemical analysis of the water supply showed that it had an \"extraordinary\" amount of impurities, including excessive amounts of organic matter, nitrates and chlorides. This indicated that sea water and sewage had infiltrated the town's supply of drinking water. The findings led to the old Spanish aqueduct and wells being closed down permanently as it was realised that they posed a severe hazard to public health.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14893912",
"title": "Aughamucky",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 539,
"text": "Until the 1950s, water was carried by hand from the local wells. Buckets of water were carried a few miles by the local children for washing and drinking purposes. The most famous of these wells was known as \"Crennans well\" which produced a very high quality of drinking water. The miners small three roomed cottages which could be homes to ten plus people were thatched with rushes or reeds from the local area, sanitation did not exist, transport to Mass shopping and visiting was either by foot or by horse/donkey or \"jennit\" and cart.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
m1x6e | Does smoke have weight? | [
{
"answer": "All matter has mass, and on Earth, weight.\n\nYour experiment sounds reasonable. Another idea would be to weigh an air filter before and after it absorbed smoke.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Smoke has weight, yes, but that experiment is no way to find it. For example, try it with a piece of magnesium instead of a cigarette. If you burn magnesium, it gives off some smoke, and at the end the ashes are actually **heavier** than the original piece of magnesium. How? Burning is just rapid oxidation, and what's left is magnesium oxide, which contains oxygen from the air, which has mass. Burning takes mass out of the air and adds it to the ashes and the smoke, and the proposed experiment doesn't take that into account.\n\nMuch of a cigarette burning is carbon, so when that oxidises it becomes carbon dioxide (or monoxide), both of which are gasses which dissipate away. Do they count as part of the smoke? Probably not, but they do in that experiment.\n\nI don't know how to formulate an experiment to weigh smoke, but the experiment given in the film is flawed.\n\nEdit: Also, because this way of thinking about fire seems so intuitively reasonable, it was pretty much our best scientific model of it for a long time. They called it [phlogiston theory](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you wanted to empirically measure the mass of the smoke, you'd have to do it in a closed environment. The movie's experiment wouldn't work, because some of the new mass would include oxidation byproducts from the combustion of the cigarette. Those byproducts may have absorbed other atoms or molecules from the air. Consequently it would not be possible to measure smoke that way.\n\nA better way that doesn't involve anything other than a scale and a vacuum is to put a known quantity of air in a sealed box. Weigh the box and the air inside, and subtract the mass of the box to get the mass of the air (call this m_air). Put the cigarette-match system in the box. Then light the cigarette with the match. What's left behind is the cigarette and match, solid byproducts, and smoke. Weigh the result (m_all).\n\nOnce it's done burning, suck out all the gases; weigh the new result and call this (m_solids).\n\nSince there's nothing in the `m_all` other than smoke, the cigarette, air, and the solid byproducts, the total mass of `m_all` must be:\n\n m_all = m_smoke + m_solids + m_air\n\nWe know what `m_all` is because we measured it, and we know what `m_air` and `m_solids` are because we measured those too. So let's solve for `m_smoke`:\n\n m_smoke = m_all - m_solids - m_air\n\nPlugging those values in will give you the mass of the smoke.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "All matter has mass, and on Earth, weight.\n\nYour experiment sounds reasonable. Another idea would be to weigh an air filter before and after it absorbed smoke.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Smoke has weight, yes, but that experiment is no way to find it. For example, try it with a piece of magnesium instead of a cigarette. If you burn magnesium, it gives off some smoke, and at the end the ashes are actually **heavier** than the original piece of magnesium. How? Burning is just rapid oxidation, and what's left is magnesium oxide, which contains oxygen from the air, which has mass. Burning takes mass out of the air and adds it to the ashes and the smoke, and the proposed experiment doesn't take that into account.\n\nMuch of a cigarette burning is carbon, so when that oxidises it becomes carbon dioxide (or monoxide), both of which are gasses which dissipate away. Do they count as part of the smoke? Probably not, but they do in that experiment.\n\nI don't know how to formulate an experiment to weigh smoke, but the experiment given in the film is flawed.\n\nEdit: Also, because this way of thinking about fire seems so intuitively reasonable, it was pretty much our best scientific model of it for a long time. They called it [phlogiston theory](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you wanted to empirically measure the mass of the smoke, you'd have to do it in a closed environment. The movie's experiment wouldn't work, because some of the new mass would include oxidation byproducts from the combustion of the cigarette. Those byproducts may have absorbed other atoms or molecules from the air. Consequently it would not be possible to measure smoke that way.\n\nA better way that doesn't involve anything other than a scale and a vacuum is to put a known quantity of air in a sealed box. Weigh the box and the air inside, and subtract the mass of the box to get the mass of the air (call this m_air). Put the cigarette-match system in the box. Then light the cigarette with the match. What's left behind is the cigarette and match, solid byproducts, and smoke. Weigh the result (m_all).\n\nOnce it's done burning, suck out all the gases; weigh the new result and call this (m_solids).\n\nSince there's nothing in the `m_all` other than smoke, the cigarette, air, and the solid byproducts, the total mass of `m_all` must be:\n\n m_all = m_smoke + m_solids + m_air\n\nWe know what `m_all` is because we measured it, and we know what `m_air` and `m_solids` are because we measured those too. So let's solve for `m_smoke`:\n\n m_smoke = m_all - m_solids - m_air\n\nPlugging those values in will give you the mass of the smoke.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "27148738",
"title": "Cigarette smoking for weight loss",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 230,
"text": "Cigarette smoking for weight loss is a weight control method whereby one consumes tobacco, often in the form of cigarettes, to decrease one's appetite. The practice dates to early knowledge of nicotine as an appetite suppressant.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "27148738",
"title": "Cigarette smoking for weight loss",
"section": "Section::::Appetite suppression.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 929,
"text": "There is much controversy concerning whether smokers are actually thinner than nonsmokers. Some studies have shown that smokers—including long term and current smokers—weigh less than nonsmokers, and gain less weight over time. Conversely, certain longitudinal studies have not shown correlation between weight loss and smoking at least among young persons. Accordingly, while the connection between nicotine and appetite suppression, as well as other physiological responses to nicotine consumption, has been established, whether these chemical and biological reactions translate to smokers being thinner than nonsmokers (at least concerning certain age groups), is still debated. Age may act as a compounding factor in some of these studies. Essentially, a causal relationship has not been explicitly established between physiological effects of nicotine and epidemiological findings about weight among smokers and nonsmokers.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "27148738",
"title": "Cigarette smoking for weight loss",
"section": "Section::::Perceptions of weight control among adolescents.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 438,
"text": "While most adults do not smoke for weight control, studies have shown that associations between tobacco use, being thin and desire for weight control do influence adolescents in terms of smoking behavior. Research demonstrates that adolescent girls that strongly value being thin are more likely to initiate smoking. Additionally, girls already engaged in risky behavior for weight control are at increased odds to begin smoking as well.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "191218",
"title": "Low birth-weight paradox",
"section": "Section::::Explanation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 205,
"text": "In short, smoking is harmful in that it contributes to low birth weight which has higher mortality than normal birth weight, but other causes of low birth weight are generally \"more\" harmful than smoking.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "56435",
"title": "Obesity",
"section": "Section::::Causes.:Social determinants.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 50,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 50,
"end_character": 278,
"text": "Smoking has a significant effect on an individual's weight. Those who quit smoking gain an average of 4.4 kilograms (9.7 lb) for men and 5.0 kilograms (11.0 lb) for women over ten years. However, changing rates of smoking have had little effect on the overall rates of obesity.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "58981",
"title": "Tobacco smoke",
"section": "Section::::Composition.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 544,
"text": "Tobacco smoke may be grouped into a particulate phase (trapped on a glass-fiber pad, and termed \"TPM\" (total particulate matter)) and a gas/vapor phase (which passes through such a glass-fiber pad). \"Tar\" is mathematically determined by subtracting the weight of the nicotine and water from the TPM. However, several components of tobacco smoke (e.g., hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, phenanthrene, and pyrene) do not fit neatly into this rather arbitrary classification, because they are distributed among the solid, liquid and gaseous phases.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "27148738",
"title": "Cigarette smoking for weight loss",
"section": "Section::::Perceptions of weight control among adolescents.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 603,
"text": "Several studies have been conducted over the past decade examining this issue in depth. While it has generally been found that white females are more apt to smoke to lose weight, one study found that smoking to lose or control weight is not limited to white females, but is prevalent across racial and gender boundaries. Within all racial groups, it was found that weight concerns and negative body perceptions were a significant factor in an adolescent's decision to smoke. The relationship between weight and smoking amongst young men was only statistically significant in white or mixed race groups.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
5uz3ie | how do you perform cpr and give compressions to a person who has fractured his chest bones? | [
{
"answer": "Whether or not they have a fractured chest does not have any relevance to Cpr.\n\nThe important thing is the forced contaction of the heart, damaged or not. \n\nIf they are dead they are dead regardless of whether or not their Ribs are being pushed into their heart. You cant make them more dead.\n\nIf they are revived good job. If they are revived with a bum ticker, good job. \n\nTldr; a broken ribcage dosnt matter as they are already dead.\n\nSource 7 years primary care paramedic\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > So in a situation where a person needs CPR but also has fractured his chest bones wouldn't simulating heartbeats do more harm?\n\nMore harm than having no heartbeat? I can't see how.\n\nIf done properly those chest compressions will likely break ribs anyway, even if they were fine to start with. Keeping the brain alive with moving oxygenated blood supercedes all other concerns including broken ribs.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In a situation when a person actually needs CPR a beating heart takes precedence over anything else even a fractured sternum/ribs. if the ribs puncture your lung and give you a pneumothorax, they can still fix you up later, but if the heart stop beating only for 5 minutes your brain cells will start to become necrotic right away (with the hippocampus being the most vulnerable). \nSource: took a CPR class in med school, asked the same question that was my instructor answer. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "That just makes it easier. Those bones are going to break during CPR anyway, this just means you don't have to break them.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "how do the fractured ribs not puncture the heart?\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They're gonna break anyways....I'm sure if the person was to survive which thank to Hollywood it's actually success is a hell if a lot lower than believed, they would probably rather wake up with a sore chest than not at all",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "First time I did CPR the snap of the rib scared the shit out of me. Didn't matter as the person didn't make it. Had they, it would be better to be alive with a broken rib than dead with your ribs intact. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you need to do CPR, that is because the person has no pulse/is not breathing/heart has stopped. In any case, your heart beating, you having a pulse, and you breathing indicate that you're alive and well, which means this will always take priority over any other injury. Rupturing a lung can be fixed, further fracturing chest bones can be fixed, any other consequence of this can typically be fixed. Your heart ceasing to beat and blood and oxygen not making it to your brain cannot be fixed. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "329949",
"title": "Lifeguard",
"section": "Section::::Lifeguarding role.:Training.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 27,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 27,
"end_character": 1127,
"text": "BULLET::::- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) A series of chest compressions and ventilations that try to circulate blood containing oxygen throughout the body to vital organs in an attempt to resuscitate a victim. A lifeguard performing CPR on an adult should use two hands on the chest, with the ring finger of the bottom hand lined up with the nipple. The chest compressions should consist of thirty compressions to 2 rescue breaths with a depth of at least 2 inches but no more than 2.4 inches. For a child the hands should be placed the same way as an adult, however, chest compressions should be about two inches. The rate at which the compressions should be is 100–120 compressions per minute for both child and adult. For an infant, the hand placement should be two fingers at the center of the chest, again just below the nipple line. The depth of compressions should be about one and a half inches with compressions being 30:2. The rate of compressions should be 100–120 compressions per minute. The chest compressions to ventilation's ratio changes from 30:2 to 15:2 for a child and infant during two rescuer CPR.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "66392",
"title": "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 783,
"text": "CPR involves chest compressions for adults between and deep and at a rate of at least 100 to 120 per minute. The rescuer may also provide artificial ventilation by either exhaling air into the subject's mouth or nose (mouth-to-mouth resuscitation) or using a device that pushes air into the subject's lungs (mechanical ventilation). Current recommendations place emphasis on early and high-quality chest compressions over artificial ventilation; a simplified CPR method involving chest compressions only is recommended for untrained rescuers. In children, however, only doing compressions may result in worse outcomes, because in children the problem normally arises from a respiratory, rather than cardiac problem. Chest compression to breathing ratios is set at 30 to 2 in adults.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "660843",
"title": "Airway management",
"section": "Section::::Airway management in specific situations.:Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 40,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 40,
"end_character": 402,
"text": "Bystanders without medical training who see an individual suddenly collapse should call for help and begin chest compressions immediately. The American Heart Association currently supports \"Hands-only\"™ CPR, which advocates chest compressions without rescue breaths for teens or adults. This is to minimize the reluctance to start CPR due to concern for having to provide mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "923467",
"title": "Heroic measure",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 249,
"text": "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a particularly well-known heroic measure; vigorous chest compressions often result in fracturing one or more of the patient's ribs, but since the alternative is certain death, the technique is accepted as necessary.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "38088631",
"title": "Resuscitative thoracotomy",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 733,
"text": "A resuscitative thoracotomy (sometimes referred to as an emergency department thoracotomy (EDT), trauma thoracotomy or, colloquially, as \"cracking the chest\") is a thoracotomy performed to resuscitate a major trauma patient who has sustained severe thoracic or abdominal trauma and who has entered cardiac arrest because of this. The procedure allows immediate direct access to the thoracic cavity, permitting rescuers to control hemorrhage, relieve cardiac tamponade, repair or control major injuries to the heart, lungs or thoracic vasculature, and perform direct cardiac massage or defibrillation. For most persons with thoracic trauma the procedure is not necessary; only 15% of those with thoracic injury require the procedure.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "66392",
"title": "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 434,
"text": "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure that combines chest compressions often with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest. It is recommended in those who are unresponsive with no breathing or abnormal breathing, for example, agonal respirations.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "66392",
"title": "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation",
"section": "Section::::Methods.:Compression only.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 60,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 60,
"end_character": 592,
"text": "For adults with cardiac arrest, compression-only (hands-only or cardiocerebral resuscitation) CPR which involves chest compressions without artificial ventilation is recommended as the method of choice for the untrained rescuer or those who are not proficient as it is easier to perform and instructions are easier to give over a phone. In adults with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, compression-only CPR by the lay public has an equal or higher success rate than standard CPR. It is hoped that the use of compression-only delivery will increase the chances of the lay public delivering CPR.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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}
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| null |
449mbw | Why did the Japanese attack the United States to bring the US into WW2? Were they completely the aggressors or had some US policy given them reasons to attack? | [
{
"answer": "For about 40 years the US and Japan had been on a collision course. A whole host of factors made it so that the nations and populations felt each other was a natural foe, and that when war came it would be particularly brutal. \n\nTo go through a few:\n\n1. Residual Colonialism clashing with Japan's desire to make good its industrialization and ascendancy. The US and UK were still committed to the \"Open Door Policy\" and Western domination of Chinese and nearby markets, while Japan sought a greater sphere of influence itself after smashing Russian power in 1905, and proving itself able to be a colonial power in its own right. \n\n2. Race based policy and rhetoric on both sides. California for instance had some particularly heavy handed anti Asian policies,a nd immigration was severely limited. And deeply held beliefs that immigrants owed allegiance to the Emperor over Washington. Meanwhile 3 generations of Japanese were fed the nationalist narrative of the Yamato Race, one people focused on greatness brought together under the Divine Emperor, and who would replace the Colonial powers as the new dominant power of the Asian peoples. \n\n3. The feelings of dishonor and anger over the Naval Treaties. In the 20's and 30's at the Washington and London Conferences Japan was pressured into accepting a 5:5:3 ratio in Battleships and in general naval tonnage compared to the US and UK. That was seen not as a recognition of global vs regional interests, but as a move to hinder the growth of the rising sun of Japan. There was then national rage and mourning when multiple unfinished battleships were taken from the dockyards and scuttled. \n\n4. Progressive tightening of economic screws by FDR. When Japanese officers in Manchuria repeatedly either acted without prior approval or created crisis, Japan found itself in its long awaited move to conquer China. In response FDR went through a series of restriction to prevent the US from feeding the war machine for a conflict he was against. Items such as scrap metal were not allowed to be sold to Japanese customers. Finally Oil was embargoed, and this then would have either forced an end to the war, or the IJA and IJN would have ground to a halt. \n\n5. Prevailing thought on how to fix that weakness was to snatch up the Dutch East Indies, and Malaysia from the Netherlands and the UK. However the US controlled Philippines stood in the way, and even without a direct attack the fear was that the US would come to its allies aid, and either way a general war would commence. \n\nSo the key becomes, with a smaller navy, how do you secure the resources needed to wage war, while also fighting off an enemy fleet equal your own?\n\nFrom that problem was born the plan to attack pearl Harbor and try to remove one of those considerations for a time. Thus the war would go A. Knock the USN off balance and freeze them B. Seize the resources you need to keep going in the South pacific. C. Prepare a string of Islands through the Pacific to use as bastions to bleed the USN when it did come to fight, then a giant climactic battle could be joined to sink the rest of them. D. Then hopefully the US would be tired of war and open negotiations which would leave Japan with the territory it needed to be resource independent. \n\nExcellent Sources: War Plan Ornage by Edward S. Miller\n\nPacific Crucible by Ian W. Toll\n\nand Shattered Sword by Parshall and Tully",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "25890428",
"title": "History of Japan",
"section": "Section::::Modern Japan.:Shōwa period (1926–1989).:World War II.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 124,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 124,
"end_character": 532,
"text": "In late 1941, Japan's government, led by Prime Minister and General Hideki Tojo, decided to break the US-led embargo through force of arms. On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This brought the US into World War II on the side of the Allies. Japan then successfully invaded the Asian colonies of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, including the Philippines, Malaya, Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma, and the Dutch East Indies.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "56411040",
"title": "Japan during World War II",
"section": "Section::::Preparations for war.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 941,
"text": "The decision by Japan to attack the United States remains controversial. Study groups in Japan had predicted ultimate disaster in a war between Japan and the U.S., and the Japanese economy was already straining to keep up with the demands of the war with China. However, the U.S. had placed an oil embargo on Japan and Japan felt that the United States' demands of unconditional withdrawal from China and non-aggression pacts with other Pacific powers were unacceptable. Facing an oil embargo by the United States as well as dwindling domestic reserves, the Japanese government decided to execute a plan developed by the military branch largely led by Osami Nagano and Isoroku Yamamoto to bomb the United States naval base in Hawaii, thereby bringing the United States to World War II on the side of the Allies. On September 4, 1941, the Japanese Cabinet met to consider the war plans prepared by Imperial General Headquarters, and decided:\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "301934",
"title": "Battles of Khalkhin Gol",
"section": "Section::::Summary.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 54,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 54,
"end_character": 992,
"text": "The United States and Britain had imposed an oil embargo on Japan, threatening to stop the Japanese war effort, but the European colonial powers were weakening and suffering early defeats in the war with Germany; only the US Pacific Fleet stood in the way of seizing the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. Because of this, Japan's focus was ultimately directed to the south, leading to its decision to launch the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December of that year. Despite plans being carried out for a potential war against the USSR (particularly contingent on German advances towards Moscow), the Japanese would never launch an offensive against the Soviet Union. In 1941, the two countries signed agreements respecting the borders of Mongolia and Manchukuo and pledging neutrality towards each other. In the closing months of World War II, the Soviet Union would annul the Neutrality Pact and invade the Japanese territories in Manchuria, northern Korea, and the southern part of Sakhalin island.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4796281",
"title": "78th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)",
"section": "Section::::Background.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 760,
"text": "On 7 December 1941, the Empire of Japan entered the war by attacking the British colony of Malaya and the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. Four days later, Germany declared war on the United States, bringing the Americans into the European conflict. The United States military favoured Operation Sledgehammer, a cross-channel invasion of German-occupied France. Such a move was opposed by the British, who acknowledged the military weakness of the Allies to undertake such an endeavour, especially as the British Army would have to provide the main force for such an operation. In July 1942, the Anglo-Americans met in London and agreed that Operation Roundup, Sledgehammer's successor, would be postponed and joint operations would begin in North Africa.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "37258993",
"title": "United States involvement in regime change",
"section": "Section::::World War II and aftermath.:1941–49: China.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 72,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 72,
"end_character": 590,
"text": "On 1 August 1941, the United States, angered by Japanese atrocities in the second Sino-Japanese War, imposed an oil embargo on Japan. This led to the Attack on Pearl Harbor, getting the United States to join the Allies in World War 2. The U.S. government provided military, logistical and other aid to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) army led by Chiang Kai-shek in its campaign against the Japanese, until the Japanese surrender to the United States in August 1945. This surrender brought to an end the Japanese Puppet state of Manchukuo and the Japanese-dominated Wang Jingwei regime.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1130125",
"title": "Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory",
"section": "Section::::Diplomatic situation.:Roosevelt's desire for war with Germany.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 26,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 26,
"end_character": 757,
"text": "An attack by Japan on the U.S. could not guarantee the U.S. would declare war on Germany. After such an attack, American public anger would be directed at Japan, not Germany, just as happened. The Tripartite Pact (Germany, Italy, Japan) called for each to aid another in defense; Japan could not reasonably claim America had attacked Japan if she struck first. For instance, Germany had been at war with the UK since 1939, and with the USSR since June 1941, without Japanese assistance. There had been a serious, if low-level, naval war going on in the Atlantic between Germany and the U.S. since summer of 1941, as well. Nevertheless, it was only Hitler's declaration of war on 11 December, unforced by treaty, that brought the U.S. into the European war.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "285396",
"title": "Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917",
"section": "Section::::Countries sanctioned under the Trading with the Enemy Act.:Japan.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 55,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 55,
"end_character": 648,
"text": "In 1940 U.S. President Roosevelt sanctioned Japan to punish it for invading China and southern Indochina under the Export Control Act. He later imposed sanctions under the Trading With the Enemy Act in 1941. Some claim that this was the reason for the attack on Pearl Harbor later in 1941. Sanctions were lifted in 1946. Japan was deeply unpopular for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Because Japan was the reason for the United States to have to enter WW2, and due to the fact many Americans wanted to stay out of European wars during both wartime periods, Japanese assets that the Japanese acquired before 1946 were confiscated and sold off.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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}
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| null |
6308fw | how did we figure out that burning rocks would make metal? | [
{
"answer": "Metal working is *way* past caveman times. \n\nWe figured out fire, and we figured out how to make *hot* fire (which we needed to make strong pottery, which we needed for storage because we figured out agriculture which, incidentally, meant we needed to figure out writing). \n\nA lot of this is, necessarily, speculative, but the likely scenario is someone put some metal in a hot fire and noticed it melted. Possibly people found free-lying metal deposits, or someone had rocks with a high degree of iron impurities. \n\nA lot of stuff like this happens *by accident*, and then possibly someone *eventually* thinks of something to do with it. ",
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"wikipedia_id": "35693800",
"title": "Traditional mining",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "The traditional method of cracking rock was fire-setting, which involved heating the rock with fire to expand it. Once the rock was heated by fire it was quenched with water to break it. Fire-setting was one of the most effective rock breaking methods until 1867 when Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6051113",
"title": "Monte Viso Tunnel",
"section": "Section::::Description.:Construction technique.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 33,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 33,
"end_character": 643,
"text": "The constructive process used was the ancient one described by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of stacking a pile of lumber against the rocky wall, and setting it on fire. The rock, burned by the flames, underwent a first process of calcination, after which it cracking and shattering gradually fragmented. The miners thereupon flooded the rock with large masses of a boiling water solution and vinegar thrown with force to disintegrate it even internally. At that point, the rock became sufficiently friable to be successfully attacked by hammers and picks that were forcefully inserted and acted in the cracks that had come to form earlier. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
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{
"wikipedia_id": "2677209",
"title": "Drilling and blasting",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 389,
"text": "An early major use of blasting to remove rock occurred in 1843 when the British civil engineer William Cubitt used 18,000 lbs of gunpowder to remove a 400 foot high chalk cliff near Dover as part of the construction of the South Eastern Railway. About 400,000 cubic yards of chalk was displaced in an exercise that it was estimated saved the company six months time and £7,000 in expense.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2677209",
"title": "Drilling and blasting",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 585,
"text": "The standard method for blasting rocks was to drill a hole to a considerable depth and deposit a charge of gunpowder at the further end of the hole and then fill the remainder of the hole with clay or some other soft mineral substance, well rammed, to make it as tight as possible. A wire laid in the hole during this process was then removed and replaced with a train of gunpowder. This train was ignited by a slow match, often consisting simply of brown paper smeared with grease, intended to burn long enough to allow the person who fires it enough time to reach a place of safety.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "1394160",
"title": "Thermal shock",
"section": "Section::::Examples of thermal shock failure.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 53,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 53,
"end_character": 310,
"text": "BULLET::::- Hard rocks containing ore veins such as quartzite were formerly broken down using fire-setting, which involved heating the rock face with a wood fire, then quenching with water to induce crack growth. It is described by Diodorus Siculus in Egyptian gold mines, Pliny the Elder, and Georg Agricola.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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{
"wikipedia_id": "12475",
"title": "Georgius Agricola",
"section": "Section::::De re metallica.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 23,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 23,
"end_character": 319,
"text": "Agricola described mining methods which are now obsolete, such as fire-setting, which involved building fires against hard rock faces. The hot rock was quenched with water, and the thermal shock weakened it enough for easy removal. It was a dangerous method when used underground, and was made redundant by explosives.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "29003100",
"title": "Prehistory of Transylvania",
"section": "Section::::Bronze Age.:Monteoru culture.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 92,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 92,
"end_character": 620,
"text": "The conversion of minerals to metal by means of fire was a process accompanied by rituals, magic formulas, and chanting to bring about the “birth of the metal.” At the foundation of a kiln at Palatca formed by a burnt out clay fireplace and several slabs of whetstone laid one on top of the other, probably round in shape, a clay vessel had been deposited. Close to the workshop, a large ritual area has been explored. Receptacles with offerings were placed in multiple hypostases next to ore-refining items (hand-mills, bronze items, ash, coal, etc.), underneath or on top of the whetstone slabs, head down or head up.\n",
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| null |
1j9vrc | How did gunpowder weapons change siege tactics? | [
{
"answer": "A great example of gunpowder changing siege warfare, in my opinion, is the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. Sultan Mehmed used a corp of cannons to weaken and bring down the walls, ending the reign of a fortress that had only been taken once before. (The Fall of Constantinople, by Nicolle, Hardon, and Turnbull - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Gibbon)\n--Also, the mere fact that gunpowder weapons were more powerful than the previous incarnations of siege weapons changed the face of warfare. What's the point of having massive walls around everything that are expensive to make and maintain when the enemy can roll up with some cannons and knock them down or severely damage them? The entire culture of warfare shifted once gunpowder became more prevalent. ",
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"answer": "They ended up not changing the strategic nature of siege warfare that much at all, except perhaps making the defender even stronger then they had been in previous centuries (how much so varies). Siege tactics, however, changed much more - but less than you'd expect.\n\nThere was a brief period from about the late 14th century to the early 15th century in which advanced cannon (corned powder, bronze barrels, iron shot) were sufficiently new that they let badly-built castles fall quickly, but it was fairly soon after their introduction that defensive countermeasures were introduced.\n\nBut even without those countermeasures, writers of the era noted that *the defender will always bring more guns to bear*. Any castle or fortification is going to be able to outrange and outgun any attacker, as the attacker will only have so many cannon that he can bring into firing range. When you combine this with how incredibly close the attacker needs to bring his weapons to have any effect on the massive walls, this creates a situation that is hugely tilted to the defender's advantage.\n\nDefensive tactics became concerned with overlapping fields of fire, angled walls to deflect cannon balls, and secondary defenses to fall back too. The attacker would have to fight their way up a horrific outer killzone in which any given approach would have the defender's full firepower focused on them (usually by constructing trenches and earthworks inch by inch in a process that might take weeks or months), try their best to knock out the defender's well protected guns near the section of wall they sought to breach (if they didn't, any attack would be blown to shreds), make at least three breaches in the wall, and then launch a simultaneous assault - one that was usually unsuccessful.\n\n[A comparison of pre and post gunpowder \"ideal\" fortifications from David Eltis' *The Military Revolution in Sixteenth Century Europe.*](_URL_1_)\n\nIt was unsuccessful because the defender at this point would have built the famous \"semi-circle\" around the breach points - a massed amount of artillery, arquebusiers, musketeers, and pikemen with their weapons aimed at the small breach in the wall and ensconced safely behind cover. When the enemy troops charged in, everyone would fire. And keep firing. Once the smoke cleared, the pikemen would charge the disoriented enemy and rout them - and the process would begin again.\n\nEven the most outdated of castles could be decently well defended in this situation, by allowing the attacker to breach the walls and killing him when he got in. Custom designed fortifications were even more impossible to take - I'd recommend reading up on the Second Siege of Rhodes and the Siege of Malta to see exactly what faced an attacker who assaulted a fortified position with a determined defender.\n\n**Bibliography:**\n\nEltis, David. *The Military Revolution in Sixteenth Century Europe.* New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1998. Print.\n\nHall, Bert. *Weapons & Warfare in Renaissance Europe.* London: The Johns Hopkins Press Ltd., 1997. Print.\n\n**Other comments:**\n\n > It's my understanding that cannons were around before handheld gunpowder weapons, and were used in Europe as far back as the 1300s, so I'm hoping there must be some examples of sieges using these weapons.\n\nA common opinion, but it's actually unclear. The current historiography has \"handheld\" (two man) weapons as the first to emerge, which makes sense when you think of how complicated it is to cast the barrel for/successfully use large gunpowder weapons.\n\n > On a related note, I'm also interested in learning about military strategy and tactics from the introduction of gunpowder weapons up until the 1800s, so are there any books or other resources that would help me out? I'm looking for a fairly general overview of how gunpowder changed warfare, especially in Europe, and while I appreciate that this is a very big field I'm quite keen to learn about it, so any books or other resources would be a great help.\n\nHa, I came to this subreddit with almost the exact same question about 8 months ago. After I had learned a lot about the subject, [I answered my own question here] (_URL_0_) along with some other ones that I had. You might be interested.",
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"answer": "Some good sources that immediately spring to mind:\nSiege Warfare: The Fortress in the Early Modern World, 1494-1660 by Christopher Duffy.\nMilitary Architecture by Quentin Hughes.\nThe Fortress series by Osprey books covers pretty much everything, and several books in the series cover the time period in which you're interested (I own nearly all of them).\nArcher Jones and Bert Hall are both excellent.",
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"answer": "Disclaimer: I am not a professional academic but I have written a senior paper on the subject, no access to it now but I can remember most of how it went. \n\nThis is a pretty complicated topic, certainly things changed in terms of the mechanics of how sieges worked logistically. The thing is that this really gets a bit muddled because almost as soon as guns came into general use defenders began adapting to them. This culminated with the invention and adoption of the Trace Italienne which, as others have indicated, would end reversing the advantage in sieges from the attacking to the defending forces. \n\nLet's start at the beginning, around the Hundred Years' War, which saw the first widespread use of cannons in the West. It is possible that cannons were used earlier, at the Siege of Cordova in 1280, but devices at this event are not certain. In any event, the practice of bringing cannons to sieges became commonplace around 1370. Clearly these weapons demonstrated their advantage quickly, in at least one instance, at Ardres in 1377, Phillip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was able to force a surrender just demonstrating that he had cannons. In other cases as few as 3 shots would have been needed, not necessarily even hitting the walls of the fortification. I should, at this point, mention the fact that even bringing cannons to a siege, while common, was a big deal. It was really hard to move these gunpowder weapons around in the 14th century, and they were prone to failure (catastrophically in fact); cannons were also incredibly expensive. So expensive that they were only affordable to the richest men in Europe (I believe there are paper relating the expenses of gunpowder to centralization in Europe but I can't recall any specific authors). \n\n\nSo this sounds like a pretty big game changer right? We all know how the story ends, with Italians inventing the Trace in the second half of the 15th century, but was there nearly 100 years of irresistible sieges taking place in the interim? The answer is no. Almost as soon as guns started knocking down walls military planners started devising defenses. Interestingly Kelly DeVries (one of my favourite scholars of the period) argues that these advances took place mostly in France and the Low Countries than in Italy since they were constantly at war in the period. \n\n\nWhat features were common on these proto Star Forts? Mostly gun ports, artillery towers, boulevards, brickwork construction & c. \n\nSo, in closing, while the Vauban and his forerunners were able to neutralize the impact of gunpowder in the length and outcome of sieges there are a number of curious side effects. My favourite of which is the fact that fortifications prudently became very, very expensive. So expensive that many states literally could not afford them. The fortifications of Antwerp cost over 1 million florins during this period, and the Republic of Siena met its demise when fortifications were so expensive that it could no longer pay for an army. Some scholars view the need for these fortifications as one of the major motivators away from the medieval system towards early modern states. \n\nI have to apologize that I only have some brief notes on my work computer from a paper I once wrote, no access to the sources here. I'll remember to add some links in a few hours, although almost all of them will be on JSTOR and behind the paywall. If you are interested in the military history of this period I can't recommend papers written by De Vries, who was mentioned above, enough. ",
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"answer": "There's a general misconception that cannon instantly changed siege warfare, made castles useless and thereby made minor feudal lords powerless to oppose their cannon-owning lieges, and made battles more common than sieges. This isn't really true; it took a long time for siege warfare to change and, if anything, they lasted longer and became more difficult, expensive, and common. What is true is that cannon were adopted very quickly and were used wholeheartedly. Even though there was chivalric and religious opposition to gunpowder, this didn't prevent it being used by pragmatic rulers. Cannon were used on the battlefield at Crecy in 1346 and at Poitiers in 1356, mere decades after the technology had appeared. They were a staple of siege warfare by the start of the fifteenth century, used extensively in (and to a large part responsible for) Henry V's successful invasion of Normandy in 1417-19 and by the French in their counter-invasion. Several key English commanders were killed by cannon, and they were instrumental in French victory at Castillon. Developments in fortification also advanced quickly, with gunports appearing in conventional fortifications around the 1370s and trace-italienne fortifications--of the type which would become ubiquitous into the 19th century--becoming increasingly popular around the end of the fifteenth century. It was seen as a sign of prestige to own a large artillery train, despite the fact that, as we will see, they probably didn't justify the expense. So there was very little hesitation in using gunpowder to the fullest extent possible.\n\nHowever, it's doubtful whether it had as meaningful an influence on warfare as some have assumed. The initial vulnerability of fortresses led to a brief renaissance for heavy cavalry, which were naturally restricted in wars which were primarily siege-based, but sieges quickly became common once again when fortification technology caught up. The Charles V of France's campaign to Naples in 1494-5 provides a good case-study of the effectiveness of artillery in sieges. Chronicler Guicciardini made much of the size and modernity of Charles' artillery train, claiming that 'such artillery rendered Charles' army very formidable to all Italy'. This view wasn't borne out by events. Two modern fortresses, incorporating deep, wide ditches, round bastions for artillery and triangular outworks to enfilade the walls, stopped the French army in its tracks. Its attacks made no headway before a diplomatic solution was reached which allowed Charles to advance south by another route; his artillery hadn't been able to defeat modern fortifications. Even Naples, which was protected only by essentially medieval fortifications with minor modifications (such as a firing platform round the base of the walls of the Castel Nuovo, the main fortification), proved a tough nut to crack. The siege was fairly rapid by medieval terms, less than a month long, but considering that the French employed a constant bombardment by around 70 guns, day and night, the performance of the artillery wasn't especially impressive; after 10 days of bombardment only superficial damage had been done to the Castel Nuovo. The indifferent performance of the guns caused the French to resort to frontal assaults, and the castle eventually fell because an ammunition explosion (a fluke event, which could have been caused by accident rather than as a result of the bombardment) broke the shaky morale of the Aragonese defenders. Given a more resolute garrison the city could have held out for longer, as is indicated by the five-month siege that took place when the French were themselves besieged there two months later. The Aragonese artillery was also unsuccessful in dislodging the defenders and they too resorted to conventional methods--assaults and a mine dug under the castle. This was filled with gunpowder and blown up in conjunction with an infantry assault--possibly the first time in history this method was used. If this shows that gunpowder had useful applications in siege warfare, it also shows that older methods were still viable, and that artillery didn't revolutionise siege warfare. It was conventional escalade and mining, not artillery bombardment, which captured Naples on both occasions. The prestige granted by cannon, and their percieved effectiveness (Charles' artillery probably caused artillery and fortification development in Italy to accelerate) were not really matched by their effectiveness, and sieges were, certainly for the first couple of centuries in which cannon were used, usually concluded by older, proven methods.\n\nTL;DR: Cannon weren't as revolutionary as everyone thinks.\n\n**Sources**: \n\n* Simon Pepper, Castles and Cannon in the Naples campaign of 1494‐95, in David Abulafia, *The French Descent into Italy 1494‐95* (1995), pp.263‐293.\n* J.R. Hale, Gunpowder and the Renaissance, J.R. Hale, *Renaissance War Studies* (1983), pp.389‐420.\n\nBert S. Hall, *Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe* (1997) is a great in-depth study of how gunpowder weaponry developed and how it influenced tactics. Also very useful is Thomas Arnold, *The Renaissance at War* (2001), especially the chapter on 'The New Legions'. Keep in mind when you're reading that gunpowder weaponry went hand-in-hand with other developments (perhaps most importantly the formation of standing armies emulating Swiss pikemen, which led directly the the introduction of drill). Gunpowder was never the only (or even the most important) factor, even though you might get that impression since it tends to be the focus of most works.",
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "2287895",
"title": "Late Middle Ages",
"section": "Section::::Military history.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 47,
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"text": "The introduction of gunpowder affected the conduct of war significantly. Though employed by the English as early as the Battle of Crécy in 1346, firearms initially had little effect in the field of battle. It was through the use of cannons as siege weapons that major change was brought about; the new methods would eventually change the architectural structure of fortifications.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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{
"wikipedia_id": "33496",
"title": "Weapon",
"section": "Section::::History.:Post-classical history.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
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"text": "The introduction of gunpowder from the Asia at the end of this period revolutionized warfare. Formations of musketeers, protected by pikemen came to dominate open battles, and the cannon replaced the trebuchet as the dominant siege weapon.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "20503",
"title": "Medieval warfare",
"section": "Section::::Fortifications.:Siege warfare.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 291,
"text": "Until the invention of gunpowder-based weapons (and the resulting higher-velocity projectiles), the balance of power and logistics definitely favored the defender. With the invention of gunpowder, the traditional methods of defence became less and less effective against a determined siege.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "26905",
"title": "Siege",
"section": "Section::::Ancient era.:Tactics.:Defensive.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 41,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Until the invention of gunpowder-based weapons (and the resulting higher-velocity projectiles), the balance of power and logistics definitely favored the defender. With the invention of gunpowder, cannon and mortars and howitzers (in modern times), the traditional methods of defense became less effective against a determined siege.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "21012786",
"title": "Torsion siege engine",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 325,
"text": "A torsion siege engine is a type of artillery that utilizes torsion to launch projectiles. They were initially developed by the ancient Greeks, specifically Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great, and used through the Middle Ages until the development of gunpowder artillery in the 14th century rendered them obsolete.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "7053",
"title": "Cannon",
"section": "Section::::History.:Early modern period.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 49,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 816,
"text": "In the latter half of the 17th century, the French engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban introduced a more systematic and scientific approach to attacking gunpowder fortresses, in a time when many field commanders \"were notorious dunces in siegecraft.\" Careful sapping forward, supported by enfilading ricochets, was a key feature of this system, and it even allowed Vauban to calculate the length of time a siege would take. He was also a prolific builder of bastion forts, and did much to popularize the idea of \"depth in defence\" in the face of cannon. These principles were followed into the mid-19th century, when changes in armaments necessitated greater depth defence than Vauban had provided for. It was only in the years prior to World War I that new works began to break radically away from his designs.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11357697",
"title": "History of cannon",
"section": "Section::::Early modern period.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 31,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 790,
"text": "In the latter half of the 17th century, the French engineer Vauban introduced a more systematic and scientific approach to attacking gunpowder fortresses, in a time when many field commanders \"were notorious dunces in siegecraft.\" Careful sapping forward, supported by enfilading ricochet fire, was a key feature of this system, and it even allowed Vauban to calculate the length of time a siege would take. He was also a prolific builder of star forts, and did much to popularize the idea of \"depth defense\" in the face of cannon. These principles were followed into the mid-19th century, when changes in armaments necessitated greater depth defense than Vauban had provided for. It was only in the years prior to World War I that new works began to break radically away from his designs.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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| null |
87bczk | Palestine to Israel | [
{
"answer": "Do you mean, why did the State of Israel call itself “Israel” and not “Palestine”? The end of the British mandate on 14 May coincided precisely with the declaration of the State of Israel, which was made that evening. A few minutes later the United States recognized Israel. Recognition from other countries would arrive in the coming hours and days.\n\nOther than that I’m not sure I understand the question?",
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "51332355",
"title": "History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom",
"section": "Section::::Since 1945.:Breakup of British Empire.:Palestine and Israel.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 184,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "The League of Nations assigned Palestine as a mandate to the UK in 1920. The British tried, but failed to stop large-scale Jewish immigration into the mandate. Britain returned it to UN control in 1947 and the UN divided Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Israel came into existence on May 14, 1948, fought off the Arab neighbors, and became a power in the region.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "17096437",
"title": "LGBT rights in the State of Palestine",
"section": "Section::::Criminal law and civil rights.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 496,
"text": "Although there is no State of Palestine, the Palestinian Territories have no specific, stand alone civil rights legislation that protects LGBT people from discrimination or harassment. While hundreds of gay Palestinians are reported to have fled to Israel because of the hostility they face in Palestine, they have also been subject to house arrest or deportation by Israeli authorities, on account of the inapplicability of the law of asylum to areas or nations in which Israel is in conflict. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "45606716",
"title": "Israel–Palestine relations",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 1246,
"text": "Israel–Palestine relations refers to the political, security, economical and other relations between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine (as well as with the preceding Palestinian National Authority and earlier Palestinian Liberation Organization). Israel and the PLO began to engage in the late 1980s and early 1990s in what became to be the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, culminated with the Oslo Accords in 1993. Shortly after, the Palestinian National Authority was established and during the next 6 years formed a network of economic and security connections with Israel, being referred to as a fully autonomous region with self-administration. In the year 2000, the relations severely deteriorated with the eruption of the Second Intifada – a rapid escalation of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The events calmed down in 2005, with only partial reconciliation and cease fire. The situation became more complicated with the split of the Palestinian Authority in 2007, the violent split of Fatah and Hamas factions, and Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip. The Hamas takeover resulted in a complete rift between Israel and the Palestinian faction in the Gaza Strip, cancelling all relations except limited humanitarian supply.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1673711",
"title": "History of the British Army",
"section": "Section::::End of the Empire and Cold War (1945–1990).:Post-World War II operations outside Great Britain.:British de-colonialisation and the British Army.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 96,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 96,
"end_character": 329,
"text": "In Palestine, there was a surge in attacks against the British mandate and occupation by Zionist organisations such as Irgun and the Stern Gang after the British attempted to limit Jewish immigration into Palestine. British military and other forces eventually withdrew in 1948 and the State of Israel was established on 14 May.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14098762",
"title": "History of Zionism",
"section": "Section::::The Struggle Against Britain and the Nazis 1939–1948.:The 1947 UN decision to partition Palestine.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 217,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 217,
"end_character": 461,
"text": "On 29 November the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state (with Jerusalem becoming an international enclave). Amid public rejoicing in Jewish communities in Palestine, the Jewish Agency accepted the plan. The Palestinian Arab leadership and the Arab League rejected the decision and announced that they would not abide by it. Civil conflict between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine ensued immediately.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "74681",
"title": "Palestinian refugees",
"section": "Section::::Positions on the 'right of return'-claim.:Israeli views.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 63,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 63,
"end_character": 800,
"text": "The Jewish Agency promised to the UN before 1948 that Palestinian Arabs would become full citizens of the State of Israel, and the Israeli declaration of independence invited the Arab inhabitants of Israel to \"full and equal citizenship\". In practice, Israel does not grant citizenship to the refugees, as it does to those Arabs who continue to reside in its borders. The 1947 Partition Plan determined citizenship based on residency, such that Arabs and Jews residing in Palestine but not in Jerusalem would obtain citizenship in the state in which they are resident. Professor of Law at Boston University Susan Akram, Omar Barghouti and Ilan Pappé have argued that Palestinian refugees from the envisioned Jewish State were entitled to normal Israeli citizenship based on laws of state succession.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5820236",
"title": "Politics of the Palestinian National Authority",
"section": "Section::::Political developments since 1993.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 213,
"text": "Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Gaza–Jericho Agreement, which established the Palestinian National Authority, a governing body for the interim period pending final status negotiations.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
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| null |
21feij | If measurement causes the wavefunction to collapse, and everything is constantly interacting with everything else in the universe via gravity, why haven't all wavefunctions collapsed all the time? | [
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"answer": "Crudely, wavefunction collapse means the following. You allow your quantum system S to interact with a set of degrees of freedom M. The interaction entangles the state of S with the state of M, so that the probability distribution of some observable OS of S are correlated with observable OM of M. But perhaps you don't care about OM and only want the marginal distribution for OS. Averaging over OM produces an effective collapse: the probabilities governing future behavior of S now behave as though, at the time of interaction with M, OS took various values with probability set by the Born rule. This is what you would expect from classical probability theory, but differs from quantum mechanics because it eliminates the effects of interference between quantum mechanical amplitudes.\n\nSo, you might think that everything is interacting with gravity, and we don't care about the state of the gravitational field, so why doesn't averaging over it classicalize all probabilities? The reason is that gravity is weak: interactions with gravitons are rare. The quantum systems we look at are affected by gravity in the sense that their motion is influenced by the background gravitational field, but they are very unlikely to change the state of that field by entangling with a graviton.",
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "773292",
"title": "Measurement problem",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
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"end_character": 299,
"text": "The measurement problem in quantum mechanics is the problem of how (or \"whether\") wave function collapse occurs. The inability to observe such a collapse directly has given rise to different interpretations of quantum mechanics and poses a key set of questions that each interpretation must answer.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "71138",
"title": "Wave function collapse",
"section": "Section::::History and context.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 40,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 714,
"text": "The cluster of phenomena described by the expression \"wave function collapse\" is a fundamental problem in the interpretation of quantum mechanics, and is known as the measurement problem. The problem is deflected by the Copenhagen Interpretation, which postulates that this is a special characteristic of the \"measurement\" process. Everett's many-worlds interpretation deals with it by discarding the collapse-process, thus reformulating the relation between measurement apparatus and system in such a way that the linear laws of quantum mechanics are universally valid; that is, the only process according to which a quantum system evolves is governed by the Schrödinger equation or some relativistic equivalent.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "47922",
"title": "Determinism",
"section": "Section::::Modern scientific perspective.:Quantum and Classical Mechanics.:Other matters of quantum determinism.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 96,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 96,
"end_character": 466,
"text": "However, neither the posited reality nor the proven and extraordinary accuracy of the wave function and quantum mechanics at small scales can imply or reasonably suggest the existence of a single wave function for the entire universe. Quantum mechanics breaks down wherever gravity becomes significant, because nothing in the wave function, or in quantum mechanics, predicts anything at all about gravity. And this is obviously of great importance on larger scales.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "199949",
"title": "Many-minds interpretation",
"section": "Section::::History.:Interpretations of quantum mechanics.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 310,
"text": "BULLET::::2. The measurement problem, which relates to what we call wavefunction collapse – the collapse of a quantum state into a definite measurement (i.e. a specific eigenstate of the wavefunction). The debate on whether this collapse actually occurs is a central problem in interpreting quantum mechanics.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "71138",
"title": "Wave function collapse",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "In 1927, Werner Heisenberg used the idea of wave function reduction to explain quantum measurement. Nevertheless, it was debated, for if collapse were a fundamental physical phenomenon, rather than just the epiphenomenon of some other process, it would mean nature was fundamentally stochastic, i.e. nondeterministic, an undesirable property for a theory. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "5863",
"title": "Copenhagen interpretation",
"section": "Section::::Nature of collapse.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 41,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 41,
"end_character": 506,
"text": "Some argue that the concept of the collapse of a \"real\" wave function was introduced by Heisenberg and later developed by John von Neumann in 1932. However, Heisenberg spoke of the wavefunction as representing available knowledge of a system, and did not use the term \"collapse\" per se, but instead termed it \"reduction\" of the wavefunction to a new state representing the change in available knowledge which occurs once a particular phenomenon is registered by the apparatus (often called \"measurement\").\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "9604",
"title": "Many-worlds interpretation",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "In many-worlds, the subjective appearance of wavefunction collapse is explained by the mechanism of quantum decoherence, and this is supposed to resolve all of the correlation paradoxes of quantum theory, such as the EPR paradox and Schrödinger's cat, since every possible outcome of every event defines or exists in its own \"history\" or \"world\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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| null |
dm7eqf | glass is not biodegradable, and will perhaps take even longer to decompose than plastic. why isn't it made out to be as big of an issue as plastic? | [
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"answer": "I believe that the answer lies in the fact that, if you crush up glass to extremely fine fragments, it is essentially sand. Plastic, as it breaks down, continues to float, pollute, and also mimics small water-borne organisms that larger organisms feed upon. Broken glass (sand) sinks, and essentially returns to the lifecycle of a rock.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Glass is about 100% reusable - most plastics are not, or is most costly to turn them “raw” again in order to be beneficial.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Glass is often used to reusable stuff and even if it's use a lot more energy to produce (a lot I insist) you can mitigate it by a longer life expectancy and no microplastic as someone already told you",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Glass is chemically the same as quartz, one of the earth’s most abundant minerals. It is not reactive and poses no threat to life.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "When you throw glas into the ocean, it won't hurt any animal unlike plastic. Because even when it is broken, it will lose it's sharpness when it is long enough in the sea, it frictions with sand and stone underwater. And if you would pick it up you can melt it again, just like sand and make some kind of glass or other building materials with it.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "Glass is 100% recyclable and is basically just melted sand. You can melt and reshape the same piece of glass forever. Glass does not require the use of hydrocarbons (plastics are made from oil), Glass, again, being basically melted sand, doesn't have harmful chemicals in it like BPAs and phalates that are both bad for human consumers and bad for the environment. Since it doesn't contain these chemicals in the first place, it can't leech them into the soil and water. Since glass is hard and has a unique shape and texture, animals do not mistake it for food, which means they won't ingest it and get sick/die.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Glass bottles are pretty much chemically inert (they won’t poison anything), and 100% recyclable. \n\nIf you throw an (open) bottle in the ocean, in a year it’ll be rocks, and in 20 years it will be sand.",
"provenance": null
},
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"answer": "Glass is a mineral essentially, as others have said. While plastics break down into some really nasty stuff. Also recycling plastics is really hard. Glass and metal can pretty much be melted down and formed into new items over and over again with very little loss of material. Of all the plastics produced we've only successfully recycled like 10%. And the material is degraded by the recycling process so more advanced plastics cannot be made out of recycled material.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You don’t even have to melt glass to recycle. Back in my day, soft drink companies used to take back glass bottles, wash em, and refill em. \n\nWe used to get a deposit back for returning glass bottles to the store.",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "2161298",
"title": "Bioglass",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 624,
"text": "This composition of bioactive glass is comparatively soft in comparison to other glasses. It can be machined, preferably with diamond tools, or ground to powder. Bioglass has to be stored in a dry environment, as it readily absorbs moisture and reacts with it. Bioglass 45S5 is the first formulation of an artificial material that was found to chemically bond with bone. One of its main medical advantages is its biocompatibility, seen in its ability to avoid an immune reaction and fibrous encapsulation. Its primary application is the repair of bone injuries or defects too large to be regenerated by the natural process.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "60803494",
"title": "China waste import ban",
"section": "Section::::Chinese plastic history.:Plastic recycling.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 1005,
"text": "It was reported that roughly 50% of plastics are being utilized in disposable manufacturing processes such as packaging, agricultural films, and disposables, while 20 to 25 % was used for long-term infrastructure like pipes, coating for cables and structured materials and the remainder is used for durable moderate life consumer goods such as electronics, furniture, and vehicles. In general, plastic is considered to be durable and non-biodegradable hence making them difficult to decompose for at least a few decades with some lasting over hundreds or thousands of years. Judging from the domestic environmental factors, even some degradable plastics may still exist for a considerable period of time due to their degradation rate which is also influenced by factors such as the exposure of UV, oxygen, and temperature, whereas biodegradable plastics require the need of adequate microorganisms. Therefore, the rate of degradation in landfills and terrestrial, marine environments would tend to vary. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "50561501",
"title": "Transparent wood composites",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 404,
"text": "When these materials are commercially available, a significant benefit is expected due to their inherent biodegradable properties since it is wood. These materials are significantly more biodegradable than glass and plastics. Transparent wood it is also shatterproof. On the other hand, concerns may be relevant due to the use of non-biodegradable plastics for long lasting purpose, such as in building.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "1999119",
"title": "Plastic recycling",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 252,
"text": "Compared with lucrative recycling of metal, and similar to the low value of glass, plastic polymers recycling is often more challenging because of low density and low value. There are also numerous technical hurdles to overcome when recycling plastic.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2161298",
"title": "Bioglass",
"section": "Section::::Applications.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 758,
"text": "Bioactive glass offers good osteoconductivity and bioactivity, it can deliver cells and is biodegradable. This makes it an excellent candidate to be used in tissue engineering applications. Although this material is known to be brittle, it is still used extensively to enhance the growth of bone since new forms of bioactive glasses are based on borate and borosilicate compositions. Bioglass can also be doped with varying quantities of elements like copper, zinc, or strontium which can allow the growth and formation of healthy bone. The formation of neocartilage can also be induced with bioactive glass by using an in vitro culture of chondrocyte-seeded hydrogels and can serve as a subchondral substrate for tissue-engineered osteochondral constructs.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11866362",
"title": "Recycling in the United Kingdom",
"section": "Section::::Main aspects of UK recycling policy.:Glass.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 27,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 27,
"end_character": 432,
"text": "Glass can be recycled in the form of bottles and jars which are crushed down and then melted. Glass can be recycled infinitely because it does not lose any of its quality. It uses a lot less energy, fewer raw materials and produces less CO2 than manufacturing glass from scratch. The main difficulty with recycling glass is the need to remove the unwanted materials that contaminate it and avoiding the mixing of different colours.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "37201518",
"title": "Plastic pollution",
"section": "Section::::Reduction efforts.:Biodegradable and degradable plastics.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 77,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Although biodegradable and degradable plastics have helped reduce plastic pollution, there are some drawbacks. One issue concerning both types of plastics is that they do not break down very efficiently in natural environments. There, degradable plastics that are oil-based may break down into smaller fractions, at which point they do not degrade further.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
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}
]
| null |
15ogth | Why was Australia not fought over the same way as Africa? | [
{
"answer": "No-one wanted it, no-one wanted to move there. The Portuguese, who were there first, described it as the worst place imaginable. At that time, there were lots of places to go if you wanted to leave your homeland, like the freshly depopulated Americas. Even the British didn't see much more use in it than to punish convicts by sending them there. Some of the best places were also protected by the Great Barrier Reef and the likes. Also, there was very little actively planned colonisation efforts, it was more about establishing trading outposts and getting resources. Australia was too far off to do either economically.",
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{
"answer": " > It just changed hands once(between European powers), and rather peacefully, correct?\n\nIt never changed hands between European powers. The Dutch, who were the first Europeans to map Australia, never claimed it. They mapped it and named it (New Holland), but nothing more than that. The first – and only – European power to make any claim to the continent of Australia was England.\n\nAnd, the reason the Dutch didn’t make a claim to Australia was because the part they saw – the western and north-western coast – was mostly uninhabitable. The north-west portion of the continent is mostly arid land or desert. There was no benefit to be seen in this land. The logs of the ship *Duyfken* [described what they saw in 1606](_URL_0_):\n\n\n > for the greatest part desert, but in some places inhabited by wild, cruel, black savages, by whom some of the crew were murdered, for which reason they could not learn anything of the land or waters as had been desired of them.\n\nThe captain of that ship [also wrote](_URL_5_):\n\n > “... that vast regions were for the greater part uncultivated, and certain parts inhabited by savage, cruel black barbarians who slew some of our sailors, so that no information was obtained touching the exact situation of the country and regarding the commodities obtainable and in demand there.... “ He found the land to be swampy and infertile, forcing them eventually to give up and return to Bantam due to their lack of “... provisions and other necessaries ....”\n\nIt wasn’t an attractive land!\n\nIt was only much later, when Captain James Cook mapped the *east* coast of Australia, that Europeans learned that this mysterious southern land had fertile areas.\n\nThe first European claim to Australia was made on 7th February 1788, when the officers of the recently arrived First Fleet read out the King’s documents, announcing his claim to the land of “New South Wales” – but only as far west as [longitude of 135°E](_URL_4_) (this was later revised to [longitude 129°E](_URL_2_), where the current border of Western Australia is). The reason for not claiming the whole southern continent was not because the Dutch had claimed the western portion - they hadn’t - but to prevent offending the Dutch in case they *wanted* to claim that portion. However, in 1829, the British started a settlement on the west coast of Australia with no protest from the Dutch – obviously they’d worked out by then that the Dutch really didn’t want the place.\n\nThe race to settle and claim the continent of Australia over the next century was not between the British and the Dutch – the British saw their rivals as the French, who were expanding their holdings in the Pacific.\nIn 1803, Governor King wrote to an official in the office of the British Admiralty that:\n\n > It was reported to me soon after the French Ships sailed that a principal object of their voyage was to fix on a Place at Van Diemens Land for a Settlement [...] with this Information I considered it my duty to establish His Majesty’s Right to that Island being within the limits of this Territory [New South Wales], I therefore despatched a Colonial Vessel [which made] an accurate Survey of King’s Island and Port Phillip at the West entrance of Basses Straits.\n\n > Making the French Commodore acquainted with my intentions of Settling Van Dieman’s Land, was all I sought by this Voyage\n\n > Under all these circumstances I judged it expedient to form a Settlement at Risdon Cove in the River Derwent [modern-day Hobart]\n\n > My reasons for making this Settlement are :– the necessity there appears of preventing the French gaining a footing on the East side of these Islands [etc]\n\nAt the time, [Britain was officially at war with France]( _URL_1_).\n\nThe expedition King mentions was led by Captain David Collins of the *Calcutta*. He did start [a settlement in Port Phillip in 1803]( _URL_3_), in order to prevent the French from using the area as a base for military actions. However, he abandoned the settlement after only eight months, due to conflict with the local Aboriginals, and poor outlook for farming. He moved on to the Derwent River, where he founded Hobart Town.\n\nNearly a hundred years later, the French were still seen as a threat by Australians. The threat of French military action in the Pacific in the late 1800s was one of the many motivations for federating the colonies into a single country.\n\nHowever, there was never a war over Australia, nor did it ever change hands from one European power to another. As to why not... that’s a mystery. People didn’t write down their motives for not starting a war which didn’t happen. However, I can speculate:\n\n* The Dutch saw no reason to go to war over a continent which they knew about 150 years before the English, but which they’d never bothered to claim because it was inhospitable. \n\n* France, the other major player, was too busy with revolutions and defensive wars in Europe in the late 1700s and early 1800s to take action in the Pacific arena on the other side of the world. They did posture a lot, and did claim many islands in the Pacific near Australia, but never actually moved on the colonies themselves.\n\n",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "22345304",
"title": "1908–09 Australia rugby union tour of Britain",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 642,
"text": "Both the New Zealand and South African teams had toured Europe in 1905 and 1906 respectively, both achieving unexpected but deserved success against club and international opposition. Despite the success of these two touring teams, Australia suffered poor press and with only a single win after the teams' first twelve international matches in its history to that point, few people suggested the team would do well. Against low expectations the Australians played well, winning 25 of 31 matches played on the tour and with some commentators writing that the team would have achieved better results if they had not picked up so many injuries.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "500375",
"title": "1st Infantry Division (South Africa)",
"section": "Section::::Western Desert.:Discontented South Africans.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 46,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 46,
"end_character": 1458,
"text": "Differences between British and South African administration were becoming more pronounced (and so too were differences between the South Africans and other Commonwealth troops!) The insistence by the Australian government to retain the Australians in the theatre (at Tobruk at that stage) as a unified corps, caused manpower shortages in other areas in the Western Desert. Brink feared that the division would be split up and deployed piece-meal to fill these gaps, as had happened in East Africa. His insistence in this regard to Auchinleck further widened the gap between the South Africans and the Army commander. At the end of October, Brink advised XXX Corps that 1st Division would not be ready to participate in the preparatory exercise as a prelude to \"Crusader\" and that he required an additional 21 days for training. After consideration by Cunningham and Auchinleck, the division was permitted three days for training and was required to be available for the commencement of \"Crusader\" on 18 November, subject to Brink confirming that the division was ready for operations. Brink was faced with the dilemma of either committing untrained troops to battle, or holding back the division and having them replaced by the Indian Division which would invariably relegate the division to defensive duties and a significant loss of prestige to the South Africans. He declared the division \"ready\" and 1 SA Division was deployed for \"Operation Crusader\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1323516",
"title": "Military history of Australia",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 800,
"text": "As British offshoots, the Australian colonies participated in Britain's small wars of the 19th century, while later as a federated dominion, and then an independent nation, Australia fought in the First World War and Second World War, as well as in the wars in Korea, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam during the Cold War. In the Post-Vietnam era Australian forces have been involved in numerous international peacekeeping missions, through the United Nations and other agencies, including in the Sinai, Persian Gulf, Rwanda, Somalia, East Timor and the Solomon Islands, as well as many overseas humanitarian relief operations, while more recently they have also fought as part of multi-lateral forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In total, nearly 103,000 Australians died during the course of these conflicts.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "22545383",
"title": "Australia–South Africa relations",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 439,
"text": "South Africa and Australia established diplomatic relations in 1947 and enjoyed very close political and economic ties. As campaigns for international isolation of South Africa intensified in the 1970s and 1980s, successive Australian governments placed Australia firmly in the anti-apartheid camp, supporting UN resolutions against apartheid and implementing the oil, trade and arms embargo as well as sport boycott against South Africa.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "154957",
"title": "New Zealand national rugby union team",
"section": "Section::::History.:Development of a legacy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 19,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 19,
"end_character": 813,
"text": "At the same time as an All Black team was touring South Africa, Australia were touring New Zealand. The two tours coincided because Māori players were not able to go to South Africa at the time, meaning the Australians, played against a New Zealand team made up of the best Māori and the reserve non-Māori players, while the South Africans encountered the best pākehā (non-Māori) players. On the afternoon of 3 September New Zealand, captained by Johnny Smith, were beaten 11–6 by Australia in Wellington. New Zealand then lost their second test 16–9, which gave Australia a Bledisloe Cup series win in New Zealand for the first time. 1949 was an \"annus horribilis\" for the All Blacks as they lost all six of their test matches, and the experience of playing two test series simultaneously has not been repeated.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "60714098",
"title": "Stranded Nation",
"section": "Section::::Summary.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 1158,
"text": "Walker argues that Australia's place in Asia has been at the forefront of public discussion and controversy since the mid 19th century. Australians imagined themselves as being a ‘white’ nation surrounded by hoards of 'Asiatics' whose magnitude, proximity and foreignness threatened the existence of Australia's European society. Australians believed that the support of other 'white' nations, particularly the United Kingdom and the United States, was required to maintain their security in a hostile environment. As Britain withdrew into a closer relationship with Europe during and after World War II, Australians were forced to recognise an urgent need to come to an accommodation with Asia. This resulted in persistent calls for a better understanding of the \"Asian psyche\" and changes in the rhetoric and rationale supporting the White Australia Policy. Through a range of government policies and schemes Australia sought to position itself as an Asia-friendly neighbour and not an arrogant white intruder. These schemes were frequently cosmetic in nature and had limited effect while the White Australia Policy remained effective until the mid 1970s.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "58721244",
"title": "Burke, Wills, King and Yandruwandha National Heritage Place",
"section": "Section::::History.:Early Exploration in the centre of Australia.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 385,
"text": "By the middle of the 19th century Europeans had explored large parts of the Australian continent but had failed to cross the country from south to north. The need to connect the isolated settlements of the north coast, facilitate trade and communication with the rest of the world and secure grazing land culminated in a race between South Australia and Victoria across the continent.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
6d0zul | what is net nuetrality? what is being for it? against it? do we have it? trying ti get it? | [
{
"answer": "John Oliver made a video a few years back and one weeks ago that touches on the subject well. Basically with net neutrality, everybody's internet speed gets treated equally regardless of what websites, browsers, etc. you use.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "300602",
"title": "Internet access",
"section": "Section::::Digital divide.:Network neutrality.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 155,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 155,
"end_character": 1045,
"text": "Network neutrality (also net neutrality, Internet neutrality, or net equality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. Advocates of net neutrality have raised concerns about the ability of broadband providers to use their last mile infrastructure to block Internet applications and content (e.g. websites, services, and protocols), and even to block out competitors. Opponents claim net neutrality regulations would deter investment into improving broadband infrastructure and try to fix something that isn't broken. In April 2017, a recent attempt to compromise net neutrality in the United States is being considered by the newly appointed FCC chairman, Ajit Varadaraj Pai. The vote on whether or not to abolish net neutrality was passed on December 14, 2017, and ended in a 3-2 split in favor of abolishing net neutrality.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8426122",
"title": "Net neutrality in the United States",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 619,
"text": "In the United States, net neutrality, the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) treat all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate, has been an issue of contention between network users and access providers since the 1990s. To elucidate the term \"net neutrality\", one can apply a metaphor that was given and illustrated by Michael Goodwin: In his illustration, he illustrates ISPs as the driveway that connects a home to the vast network of destinations on the internet, and net neutrality is the principle that prevents ISPs from slowing some traffic or charging a premium fee for other traffic.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11357820",
"title": "Internet in the United States",
"section": "Section::::Overview.:Network neutrality.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 25,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 25,
"end_character": 619,
"text": "In the United States, net neutrality, the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) treat all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate, has been an issue of contention between network users and access providers since the 1990s. To elucidate the term \"net neutrality\", one can apply a metaphor that was given and illustrated by Michael Goodwin: In his illustration, he illustrates ISPs as the driveway that connects a home to the vast network of destinations on the internet, and net neutrality is the principle that prevents ISPs from slowing some traffic or charging a premium fee for other traffic.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1029359",
"title": "Net D",
"section": "Section::::Usage.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 328,
"text": "net 30 is a term that most business and municipalities (federal, state, and local) use in the United States. net 10 and net 15 are widely used as well, especially for contractors and service-oriented business (as opposed to those that deal with tangible goods) . Net 60 is not used as frequently due to its longer payment term.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8426122",
"title": "Net neutrality in the United States",
"section": "Section::::Positions.:Opposition to net neutrality.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 177,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 177,
"end_character": 658,
"text": "Critics of net neutrality argue that data discrimination is desirable for reasons like guaranteeing quality of service. Bob Kahn, co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, called the term net neutrality a slogan and opposes establishing it, but he admits that he is against the fragmentation of the net whenever this becomes excluding to other participants. Vint Cerf, Kahn's co-founder of the Internet Protocol, explains the confusion over their positions on net neutrality, \"There’s also some argument that says, well you have to treat every packet the same. That’s not what any of us said. Or you can’t charge more for more usage. We didn’t say that either.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "58897974",
"title": "Net Neutrality in 2018",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 834,
"text": "Net Neutrality is a term used by Tim Wu, an American lawyer from Columbia, that describes a major worry that permitting a monopoly in the Internet Service Provider or ISP could allow a major shift in the market that would give absolute power to broadband companies over internet applications. In January 2018 the Federal Communications Commission released an order titled \"Restoring Internet Freedom\" that calls for regulations to be removed from Obama era legislature that put into place rules to protect the average consumer from slow, overpriced and inaccessible internet connection. The order erases the need for total transparency from internet service providers to discourage unfair pricing and practices such as blocking or strangling lawful internet trafficking in favor of other sponsored or paid traffic from a third party.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "24284612",
"title": "La Quadrature du Net",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 451,
"text": "La Quadrature du Net (\"Squaring of the Net\" in French) is a French advocacy group that promotes digital rights and freedoms of citizens. It advocates for French and European legislation to respect the founding principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge. \"La Quadrature du Net\" engages in public-policy debates concerning, for instance, freedom of speech, copyright, regulation of telecommunications and online privacy.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
12iksr | If autonomous cars become the norm, how much time and gas would we save on a typical weekly commute? | [
{
"answer": "I can't answer our question, but I can add some more sources of waste that would be eliminated by self-driving cars.\n\nIn theory, you would not longer need to stop at intersections. The computer algorithm could very quickly work out a way to get everyone through [with nobody stopping](_URL_0_).\n\nIn cases where the roadways are clear, there would be no traffic. The cars could communicate and get out of each-others' way so that none of them would need to brake or swerve unexpectedly.\n\nThe fuel costs of sitting at lights and sitting in traffic would be effectively eliminated.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "245926",
"title": "Self-driving car",
"section": "Section::::Potential advantages.:Parking space.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 95,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 95,
"end_character": 680,
"text": "Manually driven vehicles are reported to be used only 4–5% of the time, and being parked and unused for the remaining 95–96% of the time. Autonomous vehicles could, on the other hand, be used continuously after it has reached its destination. This could dramatically reduce the need for parking space. For example, in Los Angeles, 14% of the land is used for parking alone, equivalent to some 17,020,594 square meters. This combined with the potential reduced need for road space due to improved traffic flow, could free up tremendous amounts of land in urban areas, which could then be used for parks, recreational areas, buildings, among other uses; making cities more livable.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "55467476",
"title": "Superpedestrian",
"section": "Section::::Background.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 909,
"text": "The world is currently experiencing the fastest wave of urbanization in human history, leading to unprecedented levels of traffic congestion. Superpedestrian’s vehicle technology was developed in direct response to rising urban populations and urban transportation demand. The current average car in the U.S. carries only 1.55 people per vehicle, but occupies enough road space to fit five. Many people assume that self-driving cars in the future will be used as shared vehicles, but research shows it is unlikely that autonomous vehicles will be shared for the majority of the time. Even with a steep discount in the price of a ride, surveys show only 52% of riders will be willing to share an autonomous vehicle. As a result, we are unlikely to meet future transportation needs without turning to micro-mobility - one-to-two person vehicles that enable individualized trips while taking up less road space.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14101678",
"title": "DARPA Grand Challenge (2007)",
"section": "Section::::Overview.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 314,
"text": "The advantages of this technology are potentially enormous. Well-coordinated fully automatic driving will be much more efficient, with reduction in traffic jams and road accidents, which cost trillions per year in the US alone. Efficiency will also reduce energy consumption and thus pollution and climate change.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6391703",
"title": "Green marketing",
"section": "Section::::Cases.:Car sharing services.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 72,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 72,
"end_character": 549,
"text": "Car-sharing services address the longer-term solutions to consumer needs for better fuel savings and fewer traffic tie-ups and parking nightmares, to complement the environmental benefit of more open space and reduction of greenhouse gases. They may be thought of as a \"time-sharing\" system for cars. Consumers who drive less than 7,500 miles a year and do not need a car for work can save thousands of dollars annually by joining one of the many services springing up, including Zipcar (East Coast), I-GO Car (Chicago), and Hour Car (Twin Cities).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "245926",
"title": "Self-driving car",
"section": "Section::::Potential advantages.:Related effects.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 97,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 97,
"end_character": 536,
"text": "By reducing the (labor and other) cost of mobility as a service, automated cars could reduce the number of cars that are individually owned, replaced by taxi/pooling and other car-sharing services. This would also dramatically reduce the size of the automotive production industry, with corresponding environmental and economic effects. Assuming the increased efficiency is not fully offset by increases in demand, more efficient traffic flow could free roadway space for other uses such as better support for pedestrians and cyclists.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "60523913",
"title": "Artificial intelligence in heavy industry",
"section": "Section::::Potential Benefits.:Environmental Impacts.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 18,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 18,
"end_character": 390,
"text": "Self-driving cars are potentially beneficial to the environment. They can be programmed to navigate the most efficient route and reduce idle time, which could result in less fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The same could be said true for the heavy machinery used in the heavy industry. AI can see the path clearly, whereas humans are prone to occasional errors.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "108057",
"title": "Ramona, California",
"section": "Section::::Demographics.:2000.:RCPA.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 73,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 73,
"end_character": 222,
"text": "96.03% of occupied households had at least one motor vehicle, and 75.49% had two or more vehicles. For those employed, the average travel time to work was 36 minutes. 14.76% had travel times to work of 60 minutes or more.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
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}
]
| null |
eacsao | considering how contagious vomiting bugs are like norovirus, why aren’t we always sick with them? | [
{
"answer": "\n > So why is it that people can go years before they catch this bug again when you’re immunity only lasts for about 6 weeks? \n\nSome people are born with a lifetime resistance/immunity. Their dna prevents them from getting sick when they encounter the virus. That's a lot longer than 6 weeks.\n\nI'm one of them. I've never had it at all. My genes protect me.\n\nOne example of this is:\n > Mutation in FUT2 on chromosome 19 protects one in five individuals from most common norovirus infections.\n\nIf you get sick 10 times and I never get sick then we're sick an average of 5 times (10/2=5)",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": "Most extreme pathogens are caught early by food manufacturers. All of them are required to have up to date HACCP plans, food safety plans, and as of 2018 putting more emphasis on CoA of raw materials and doing due diligence on them. Check out the recalls. Almost all of these are 100% voluntary and require a lot effort and oversight. Look at blue bell. They got hit with listeria twice and after 8 years they are only just now coming back to the size they once were. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nBasic fact is that food companies, most of the time, catch these nasties before you get them. Of course norovirus is special because a sick worker at a tacobell wont take time off and then everything they look at is contaminated. Its rare that this happens and only spreads so far before everyone is healed. Also the immunity of norovirus varies from person to person but is usually a short amount of time.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "164924",
"title": "Norovirus",
"section": "Section::::Virology.:Transmission.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 650,
"text": "Noroviruses are transmitted directly from person to person (62–84% of all reported outbreaks) and indirectly via contaminated water and food. They are extremely contagious, and fewer than twenty virus particles can cause an infection (some research suggests as few as five). Transmission can be aerosolized when those stricken with the illness vomit, and can be aerosolized by a toilet flush when vomit or diarrhea is present; infection can follow eating food or breathing air near an episode of vomiting, even if cleaned up. The viruses continue to be shed after symptoms have subsided and shedding can still be detected many weeks after infection.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "869123",
"title": "Gastroenteritis",
"section": "Section::::Cause.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 608,
"text": "Viruses (particularly rotavirus) and the bacteria \"Escherichia coli\" and \"Campylobacter\" species are the primary causes of gastroenteritis. There are, however, many other infectious agents that can cause this syndrome including parasites and fungus. Non-infectious causes are seen on occasion, but they are less likely than a viral or bacterial cause. Risk of infection is higher in children due to their lack of immunity. Children are also at higher risk because they are less likely to practice good hygiene habits. Children living in areas without easy access to water and soap are especially vulnerable.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "12552830",
"title": "Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus",
"section": "Section::::Transmissibility.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 286,
"text": "The virus is unable to infect humans in the way it does insects, because human stomachs are acid-based and NPV requires an alkaline digestive system in order to replicate. It is possible for the virus crystals to enter human cells, but not to replicate to the point of causing illness.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "869123",
"title": "Gastroenteritis",
"section": "Section::::Cause.:Viral.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 435,
"text": "Rotavirus, norovirus, adenovirus, and astrovirus are known to cause viral gastroenteritis. Rotavirus is the most common cause of gastroenteritis in children, and produces similar rates in both the developed and developing world. Viruses cause about 70% of episodes of infectious diarrhea in the pediatric age group. Rotavirus is a less common cause in adults due to acquired immunity. Norovirus is the cause in about 18% of all cases.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "47642698",
"title": "Clogmia albipunctata",
"section": "Section::::Biology.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 257,
"text": "Although they are considered harmless, some cases of myiasis caused by the larvae of this insect are reported in the literature, at the nasal, intestinal and urinary levels but are often associated with very poor sanitary conditions and bad hygiene habits.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "40710591",
"title": "ANTI (computer virus)",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 365,
"text": "The most commonly encountered strains of ANTI have only subtle effects, and thus can exist and spread indefinitely without being noticed until an antivirus application is run. Due to a bug in the virus, it cannot spread if MultiFinder is running, which prevents it from infecting System 7 and later versions of Mac OS as well as System 5 and 6 running MultiFinder.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "531611",
"title": "Foodborne illness",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 495,
"text": "Symptoms often include vomiting, fever, and aches, and may include diarrhea. Bouts of vomiting can be repeated with an extended delay in between, because even if infected food was eliminated from the stomach in the first bout, microbes, like bacteria, (if applicable) can pass through the stomach into the intestine and begin to multiply. Some types of microbes stay in the intestine, some produce a toxin that is absorbed into the bloodstream, and some can directly invade deeper body tissues.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
1i5fsk | why are credit cards and credit so important? what's wrong with just a debt card? | [
{
"answer": "Debit cards are fine, you just don't build credit with them. You're using cash you actually have in an account, as opposed to using a credit line.\n\nCredit is important because at some point in life, you will invariably need money you don't have. For example, you may need to take out a loan for a house, finance a car, etc. If you're doing business in an individual capacity or as the representative of a company, it also helps to have a good credit score for much the same reason. A bank is more likely to lend to a business if its guarantors have good credit.\n\nFor my part, I think it's advisable to build credit to a point where you can shred the cards and go cash-only in like in ye olden tymes. I've read studies saying you spend (waste) less money that way, and nothing's quite as baller as paying for everything in bills like a prohibition-era gangster.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Credit cards are also arguably more secure. If someone steals your debit card, it's a lot more trouble to get the money they spend back because it has been taken directly out of your bank account. Usually, you have to go get a notarized statement saying you lost your card. For a credit card, you haven't technically lost any money until you pay your credit statement at the end of the month. You have an opportunity to talk to the credit card company and tell them what happened. Generally, they are fairly understanding and so this is much easier than going to a notary.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Credit, as in your credit score is basically a record of how good you are at borrowing money. If you come to a point where you want to borrow money, having a good record makes it easier to get a loan with affordable payments or even lower intrest. Good credit basically gives you more options for borrowing money.\n\nAs far as the cards are concerned, a credit card lets you borrow money whereas a debit card lets you spend your own money. If you are spending your own money, you aren't building a record of how well you repay loans. If you use a credit card, it builds a record of you taking out loans and repaying them, which is useful to lenders.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Credit cards:\n\n* establish a credit history\n* allow you to spend money you don't have just yet\n* have legal fraud protections debit cards don't\n* often have perks, like cashback or miles",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1471699",
"title": "Credit card debt",
"section": "Section::::Statistics.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 21,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 21,
"end_character": 780,
"text": "Declines in credit card debt are often misinterpreted because they fail to include information about charge-offs. The possible causes for a decline in credit card debt are consumers paying down their debt, credit card companies writing charged-off debt off their books, or a combination of the two. Inclusion of charged-off debt can therefore significantly impact debt trends and the characterization of a nation's financial health. For example, the $10.3 billion decrease in outstanding credit card debt in Q3 2010 relative to the previous quarter might at first glance seem to be a significant consumer pay down. However, considering that the Q3 credit card charge-off rate was $16.9 billion, consumers actually increased their overall debt by $6.6 billion during this quarter.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "509648",
"title": "Perception management",
"section": "Section::::Business.:Marketing.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 56,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 56,
"end_character": 858,
"text": "This fact has necessitated the need for almost every citizen to have a credit card. However, many credit cards companies manage their perception to make sure that people continue to need credit cards, and control their perception so that many people do not fully understand what they are getting into. However, the fact that the average household in the United States is in over fifteen thousand dollars worth of debt never reaches the widespread public. Instead, they publicize how they will help if a card gets stolen, or that they have the lowest interest percentage compared to the other major competitors. But no company tells their customers that the promoted interest rate more than doubles if they do not pay the minimum balance on time. For instance, Discover's interest rate increases to 18.99% after the first minimum balance is not paid on time.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "17182301",
"title": "Credit card",
"section": "Section::::Types.:Secured credit cards.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 90,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 90,
"end_character": 579,
"text": "Secured credit cards are an option to allow a person with a poor credit history or no credit history to have a credit card which might not otherwise be available. They are often offered as a means of rebuilding one's credit. Fees and service charges for secured credit cards often exceed those charged for ordinary non-secured credit cards. For people in certain situations, (for example, after charging off on other credit cards, or people with a long history of delinquency on various forms of debt), secured cards are almost always more expensive than unsecured credit cards.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "761554",
"title": "Online dispute resolution",
"section": "Section::::Methods.:Adjudicative.:Chargebacks.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 60,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 60,
"end_character": 398,
"text": "It is then not surprising why credit cards are the major source of payments for consumers in e-commerce. They provide a remedy that reverses all transactions when a fraudulent use has occurred, or when there is a violation of the contract terms. However this method has limitations; it offers one single remedy (the return of the payment), and not all disputes imply a breach of contract or fraud.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "16616591",
"title": "Overspending",
"section": "Section::::Credit.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 229,
"text": "Sources of credit such as credit cards enable overspending by allowing consumers to spend beyond their income. Financial counselors advise indebted consumers to avoid buying goods on credit and even to cut up their credit cards.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "44067867",
"title": "Howard Dvorkin",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 274,
"text": "This opinion has stood in stark contrast to the ever-increasing U.S. consumers’ love of credit cards, and their increasing debt. In 2012, those consumers had an average 3.7 cards and an unpaid balance of over $5,600. Meanwhile, credit card debt totaled nearly $800 billion.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "7048889",
"title": "Debt buyer (United States)",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
"end_character": 220,
"text": "According to a 2004 \"Healthcare Financial Management\" web page, credit card debt comprises seventy percent of the accounts sold to debt buyers, followed by automobile loans, telecommunications debt and retail accounts. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
1m93bl | Does pollen carry or assist the spread of illness? | [
{
"answer": "Pollen can act as a significant vector for viruses (_URL_0_ you can only see the abstract, but that's enough to know that pollen is a viral vector), however pollen doesn't actually increase the amount of pathogenic particles leaving someone with a transferable disease unless they are allergic.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "21591359",
"title": "Aeroallergen",
"section": "Section::::Pollens.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 283,
"text": "The pollen which causes hay fever varies from person to person and from region to region; generally speaking, the tiny, hardly visible pollens of wind-pollinated plants are the predominant cause. Pollens of insect-pollinated plants are too large to remain airborne and pose no risk.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11196440",
"title": "William P. Dunbar",
"section": "Section::::Allergy control contributions.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 869,
"text": "Dunbar devised techniques for collecting pure pollen, because sample contamination had previously led to unverifiable results. He developed methodologies for testing patients' sensitivity to certain pollens by minuscule exposure to pollen via their eyes or nasal passages, By using high-quality lab techniques, he was able to eliminate a number of theories about \"hay fever\" that were current in the late 1800s. Dunbar determined that it was the dried cat saliva on cat hair that caused the allergic reaction. With regard to grass pollen, Dunbar identified the albumin fraction as the active toxin, discovered changes in the blood that accompanied exposure to the pollen, and was able to grade individual's relative susceptibility to each type of pollen. Much of his work on allergies is summed up in his 1913 publication \"The present state of knowledge of hay fever\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "46980",
"title": "Pollen",
"section": "Section::::Allergy to pollen.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 25,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 25,
"end_character": 514,
"text": "Nasal allergy to pollen is called pollinosis, and allergy specifically to grass pollen is called hay fever. Generally, pollens that cause allergies are those of anemophilous plants (pollen is dispersed by air currents.) Such plants produce large quantities of lightweight pollen (because wind dispersal is random and the likelihood of one pollen grain landing on another flower is small), which can be carried for great distances and are easily inhaled, bringing it into contact with the sensitive nasal passages.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1291577",
"title": "Bee pollen",
"section": "Section::::Use as a health supplement.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 744,
"text": "Bee pollen has been touted by herbalists as a treatment for a variety of medical conditions, but there is no good evidence that bee pollen has any health benefits other than as a source of nutrition. Potential risks of consuming bee pollen include contamination by fungal mycotoxins, pesticides, or toxic metals. Bee pollen is safe for short term use, but for those with pollen allergies, allergic reactions may occur (shortness of breath, hives, swelling, and anaphylaxis). Bee pollen is not safe for pregnant women and should not be used during breastfeeding. The Food and Drug Administration has warned against the use of some bee pollen products because they are adulterated with unapproved drugs including sibutramine and phenolphthalein.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4576465",
"title": "Flower",
"section": "Section::::Pollination.:Pollen allergy.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 59,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 59,
"end_character": 700,
"text": "The type of allergens in the pollen is the main factor that determines whether the pollen is likely to cause hay fever. For example, pine tree pollen is produced in large amounts by a common tree, which would make it a good candidate for causing allergy. It is, however, a relatively rare cause of allergy because the types of allergens in pine pollen appear to make it less allergenic. Instead the allergen is usually the pollen of the contemporary bloom of anemophilous ragweed (\"Ambrosia\"), which can drift for many miles. Scientists have collected samples of ragweed pollen 400 miles out at sea and 2 miles high in the air. A single ragweed plant can generate a million grains of pollen per day.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "20610449",
"title": "Colony collapse disorder",
"section": "Section::::Possible causes.:Pesticides.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 60,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 60,
"end_character": 854,
"text": "In 2005, a team of scientists led by the National Institute of Beekeeping in Bologna, Italy, found pollen obtained from seeds dressed with imidacloprid contain significant levels of the insecticide, and suggested the polluted pollen might cause honey bee colony death. Analysis of maize and sunflower crops originating from seeds dressed with imidacloprid suggest large amounts of the insecticide will be carried back to honey bee colonies. Sublethal doses of imidacloprid in sucrose solution have also been documented to affect homing and foraging activity of honey bees. Imidacloprid in sucrose solution fed to bees in the laboratory impaired their communication for a few hours. Sublethal doses of imidacloprid in laboratory and field experiment decreased flight activity and olfactory discrimination, and olfactory learning performance was impaired.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "412753",
"title": "Allergic rhinitis",
"section": "Section::::Cause.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 562,
"text": "Allergic rhinitis triggered by the pollens of specific seasonal plants is commonly known as \"hay fever\", because it is most prevalent during haying season. However, it is possible to have allergic rhinitis throughout the year. The pollen that causes hay fever varies between individuals and from region to region; in general, the tiny, hardly visible pollens of wind-pollinated plants are the predominant cause. Pollens of insect-pollinated plants are too large to remain airborne and pose no risk. Examples of plants commonly responsible for hay fever include:\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
9go6jo | How did scientists recreate the 1918 Influenza Virus? | [
{
"answer": "Scientists were able to determine the genetic sequence of the 1918 virus using samples from a woman who had died of the virus and was buried in permafrost. Then, they used the sequence to rebuild the virus, likely by expressing the genome within a cell, which would produce viral proteins that assembled into infectious viruses. This was done in 2005 by the CDC. The primary goal of recreating this virus is to study what made it more deadly than current viruses, as well as what made it a pandemic. There is also a hypothesis that it is safer to work with, because it has similarities to the H1N1 virus that many people were exposed to or inoculated against in 2009, and thus would not act like a pandemic flu if it were released accidentally. Hopefully, this is never tested and remains a hypothesis.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3811707",
"title": "Influenza Genome Sequencing Project",
"section": "Section::::Origins.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 578,
"text": "In early 2004, David Lipman, Lone Simonsen, Steven Salzberg, and a consortium of other scientists wrote a proposal to begin sequencing large numbers of influenza viruses at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). Prior to this project, only a handful of flu genomes were publicly available. Their proposal was approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and would later become the IGSP. New technology development led by Elodie Ghedin began at TIGR later that year, and the first publication describing 100 influenza genomes appeared in 2005 in the journal Nature \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5274548",
"title": "Spanish flu research",
"section": "Section::::Discovery of viral genomes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 738,
"text": "The February 6, 2004 edition of \"Science\" magazine reported that two research teams, one led by Sir John Skehel, director of the National Institute for Medical Research in London, another by Professor Ian Wilson of The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, had managed to synthesize the hemagglutinin protein responsible for the flu outbreak of 1918. They did this by piecing together DNA from a lung sample from an Inuit woman buried in the Alaskan tundra and a number of preserved samples from American soldiers of the First World War. The teams had analyzed the structure of the gene and discovered how subtle alterations to the shape of a protein molecule had allowed it to move from birds to humans with such devastating effects.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "38563270",
"title": "George Hirst (virologist)",
"section": "Section::::Research.:Segmented influenza genome.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 706,
"text": "Starting in the late 1940s, Hirst carried out pioneering research into the genetics of animal viruses. His team built on Frank Macfarlane Burnet's work on recombination in influenza virus, carrying out a series of experiments that led Hirst to conclude in 1962 that influenza's genome must consist of several separate fragments, \"a truly revolutionary idea at the time,\" according to R. Walter Schlesinger and Allan Granoff. Influenza viruses are now known to have eight such segments, and the segmentation of its genome facilitates the exchange of segments between different influenza viruses, causing antigenic shift which can result in pandemics. Segmented genomes are also found in many other viruses.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "19572217",
"title": "Influenza",
"section": "Section::::History.:Pandemics.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 156,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 156,
"end_character": 678,
"text": "The first influenza virus to be isolated was from poultry, when in 1901 the agent causing a disease called \"fowl plague\" was passed through Chamberland filters, which have pores that are too small for bacteria to pass through. The etiological cause of influenza, the virus family Orthomyxoviridae, was first discovered in pigs by Richard Shope in 1931. This discovery was shortly followed by the isolation of the virus from humans by a group headed by Patrick Laidlaw at the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom in 1933. However, it was not until Wendell Stanley first crystallized tobacco mosaic virus in 1935 that the non-cellular nature of viruses was appreciated.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5504549",
"title": "Richard Friedrich Johannes Pfeiffer",
"section": "Section::::Career.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 205,
"text": "Although the duo had perhaps isolated the influenza virus (which they nevertheless referred to as an atypical bacterium called Bacterium pneumosintes), other researchers could not reproduce their results.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "198796",
"title": "Spanish flu",
"section": "Section::::Spanish flu research.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 79,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 79,
"end_character": 551,
"text": "An effort to recreate the 1918 flu strain (a subtype of avian strain H1N1) was a collaboration among the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the USDA ARS Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. The effort resulted in the announcement (on 5 October 2005) that the group had successfully determined the virus's genetic sequence, using historic tissue samples recovered by pathologist Johan Hultin from a female flu victim buried in the Alaskan permafrost and samples preserved from American soldiers.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "13759360",
"title": "Jeffery Taubenberger",
"section": "Section::::Johan Hultin comes in.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
"end_character": 327,
"text": "In a series of papers the team published the complete genome of the 1918 influenza virus. The work was funded by the Veteran's Administration and the Department of Defense. The completion of the genome in 2005 was numbered among the “breakthroughs of the year” by \"Science\" and was elected as \"paper of the year\" by \"Lancet \".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
2uvomm | what does hydrogen peroxide do to earwax chemically that makes it easier to remove? | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't do anything chemically to the earwax, other than possibly diluting it. It works mechanically. The bubbles help loosen the wax. The bubbles are caused by an enzyme called catalase that exists in the dead skin cells in the wax. This enzyme rapidly breaks down the hydrogen peroxide, releasing bubbles of oxygen. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "709796",
"title": "Hydrogen peroxide - urea",
"section": "Section::::Applications.:Disinfectant and bleaching agent.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 363,
"text": "Hydrogen peroxide - urea is mainly used as a disinfecting and bleaching agent in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. As a drug, this compound is used in some preparations for the whitening of teeth. It is also used to relieve minor inflammation of gums, oral mucosal surfaces and lips including canker sores and dental irritation, and to emulsify and disperse earwax.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "782",
"title": "Mouthwash",
"section": "Section::::Ingredients.:Hydrogen peroxide.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 52,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 52,
"end_character": 389,
"text": "Hydrogen peroxide can be used as an oxidizing mouthwash (e.g. Peroxyl, 1.5%). It kills anaerobic bacteria, and also has a mechanical cleansing action when it froths as it comes into contact with debris in mouth. It is often used in the short term to treat acute necrotising ulcerative gingivitis. Side effects with prolonged use might occur, including hypertrophy of the lingual papillae.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "39714111",
"title": "Bocasan",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 236,
"text": "A 1979 double-blind crossover study suggests that hydrogen peroxide, which is released during the use of this product, may prevent or retard colonization and multiplication of anaerobic bacteria, such as those that inhabit oral wounds.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4873558",
"title": "Amosan",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 238,
"text": "A recent double-blind crossover study suggests that hydrogen peroxide, which is released during the use of this product, may prevent or retard colonization and multiplication of anaerobic bacteria, such as those that inhabit oral wounds.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14403",
"title": "Hydrogen peroxide",
"section": "Section::::Uses.:Disinfectant.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 72,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 72,
"end_character": 246,
"text": "Hydrogen peroxide is seen as an environmentally safe alternative to chlorine-based bleaches, as it degrades to form oxygen and water and it is generally recognized as safe as an antimicrobial agent by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "47685137",
"title": "Hydrogen peroxide contact solutions",
"section": "Section::::Mechanism of action.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 564,
"text": "The majority of hydrogen peroxide solutions are 3% hydrogen peroxide. This enables the solution to break down any proteins that coat the contacts after a long period of use. Hydrogen peroxide is always used alongside a neutralizing product. The intention is to prevent the hydrogen peroxide from contact with the eye, which could damage the corneal cells in the epithelium. While this would not result in permanent damage, it can cause an intense burn that can linger even after an eye rinse. Burned cells heal very quickly once the natural tear film is restored.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14403",
"title": "Hydrogen peroxide",
"section": "Section::::Uses.:Disinfectant.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 73,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 73,
"end_character": 542,
"text": "Historically hydrogen peroxide was used for disinfecting wounds, partly because of its low cost and prompt availability compared to other antiseptics. It is now thought to inhibit healing and to induce scarring because it destroys newly formed skin cells. Only a very low concentration of HO can induce healing, and only if not repeatedly applied. Surgical use can lead to gas embolism formation. Despite this, it is still used for wound treatment in many countries but is also prevalent as a major first aid antiseptic in the United States.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
f6vsy | growing plants indoors with non-solar light...help understanding plant needs / physics | [
{
"answer": "If you go to the following forums: _URL_2_, _URL_0_ and _URL_1_ you will find a shit load of information. Now, don't get me wrong, they focus on growing one particular plant, but grow room design is essentially the same.\n\nThat said, lots of people use mylar, the issue with mylar is that if it isn't perfectly flat, it can create \"hot spots\", which are areas of focused light. That ORCA film you posted seems to get past this, I am not sure if it is hype or not.\n\nLots of people also just paint the walls with a flat white paint. If you go this route, get something that is oil based so it is water resistant, and possibly also get something that is mold and mildew resistant.\n\nHowever, when I do eventually rebuild my grow room, I will be using a material like Foylon. It is similar to mylar, but it is polyester based, so it is far, far, far more durable than mylar, and it is easier to clean, because it won't easily tear. It is more expensive though.\n\n[Here](_URL_3_) is a website that has mylar and that ORCA stuff, as well as some other products, of all the things on this page, I would probably go for the Diamond Diffusion product.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Hahaha, c'mon man, just say it. \"I'm growing pot, help plz?\"\n\nEven if you aren't though, you might just want to go to /r/trees and ask for growing tips. Same function really.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "33657110",
"title": "Gardening in restricted spaces",
"section": "Section::::Indoor gardening.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 532,
"text": "When planning an indoor garden it is important to choose plants with light requirements that are conducive in homes. To maximize a plants sun exposure, place it in a room that receives high amounts of natural light. Artificial lights are an alternative if the natural lighting in a room is insufficient, and they can help plants reach their maximum growth potential. Indoor plants thrive on consistency. Stable temperatures (65–75 degrees Fahrenheit), consistent lighting, and regular watering are all beneficial for indoor plants.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "8969693",
"title": "Grow light",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
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"text": "Grow lights either attempt to provide a light spectrum similar to that of the sun, or to provide a spectrum that is more tailored to the needs of the plants being cultivated. Outdoor conditions are mimicked with varying colour, temperatures and spectral outputs from the grow light, as well as varying the intensity of the lamps. Depending on the type of plant being cultivated, the stage of cultivation (e.g. the germination/vegetative phase or the flowering/fruiting phase), and the photoperiod required by the plants, specific ranges of spectrum, luminous efficacy and colour temperature are desirable for use with specific plants and time periods.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "8969693",
"title": "Grow light",
"section": "Section::::Common types.:High intensity discharge (HID) lights.:High-pressure sodium (HPS).\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 29,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Plants grown under HPS lights tend to elongate from the lack of blue/ultraviolet radiation. Modern horticultural HPS lamps have a much better adjusted spectrum for plant growth. The majority of HPS lamps while providing good growth, offer poor color rendering index (CRI) rendering. As a result, the yellowish light of an HPS can make monitoring plant health indoors more difficult. CRI isn't an issue when HPS lamps are used as supplemental lighting in greenhouses which make use of natural daylight (which offsets the yellow light of the HPS).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "8969693",
"title": "Grow light",
"section": "Section::::Common types.:Light emitting diodes (LEDs).\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 41,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 890,
"text": "In tests conducted by Philips Lighting on LED grow lights to find an optimal light recipe for growing various vegetables in greenhouses, they found that the following aspects of light affects both plant growth (photosynthesis) and plant development (morphology): light intensity, total light over time, light at which moment of the day, light/dark period per day, light quality (spectrum), light direction and light distribution over the plants. However it's noted that in tests between tomatoes, mini cucumbers and bell peppers, the optimal light recipe was not the same for all plants, and varied depending on both the crop and the region, so currently they must optimize LED lighting in greenhouses based on trial and error. They've shown that LED light affects disease resistance, taste and nutritional levels, but as of 2014 they haven't found a practical way to use that information.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "4168945",
"title": "Growroom",
"section": "Section::::Lighting.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 428,
"text": "The three most common varieties of artificial lighting for indoor growing are high-intensity discharge lamps (the most prevalent for this application being: sodium-vapor lamps for flowering and metal halide lamps for growing), compact fluorescent lamps, and traditional fluorescent lamps. Full spectrum indoor LED grow lights are becoming more common in grow rooms due to their low energy requirements and very low heat output.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8969693",
"title": "Grow light",
"section": "Section::::Typical use.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 241,
"text": "Grow lights are used for horticulture, indoor gardening, plant propagation and food production, including indoor hydroponics and aquatic plants. Although most grow lights are used on an industrial level, they can also be used in households.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "925631",
"title": "Garden design",
"section": "Section::::Elements.:Sunlight.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 30,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 30,
"end_character": 624,
"text": "While sunlight is not always easily controlled by the gardener, it is an important element of garden design. The amount of available light is a critical factor in determining what plants may be grown. Sunlight will, therefore, have a substantial influence on the character of the garden. For example, a rose garden is generally not successful in full shade, while a garden of hostas may not thrive in hot sun. As another example, a vegetable garden may need to be placed in a sunny location, and if that location is not ideal for the overall garden design goals, the designer may need to change other aspects of the garden.\n",
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"meta": null
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| null |
a3he6r | flight, how does it work? | [
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"answer": "The basics are that because of the shape of the wing, air travels faster over the top side of the wing than the bottom side, which means there is more pressure on the bottom side of the wing (this is called Bernoulli's Principle), and because there is a larger pressure on the bottom side of the wing, the airplane counteracts the effect of gravity and stays in the air.\n\n_URL_0_",
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"answer": "Ever stuck your hand out a car window and tilted it? You feel a force pushing your hand up or down, this is Lift. Lift counteracts Weight from gravity and enables flight.\n\nWhile the shape of the wing provides some lift, the majority of it comes from the angle that the wing is going into the wind at (angle of attack). If you want to go up then you tilt the nose up, if you want to go down you tilt the nose down just like angling your hand out the car window.\n\nBut tilting your hand also creates a force which pushes it backwards, this is called Drag. To counteract drag you need Thrust which we get from engines that drive propellers or giant fans(jet engines).\n\nAnd those are the four basic forces of flight - Lift, Weight, Drag, and Thrust. If you've got enough Lift to overcome your Weight then you can fly but it generally takes high speed to generate that lift so you need enough Thrust to overcome the Drag.",
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"answer": "There's flight in the context of aircraft and helicopters, technically these are due to [both Bernoulli's Principle and Newton's third law of motion](_URL_3_). (The traditional concept we are taught about Bernoulli and the shape of the wing making air take longer to travel on one side, [is mostly incorrect](_URL_1_)). \n\nFlight is kind of a big topic.\n\nFlight can occur in one of three basic ways: having wings that push down on the air to make the thing go upwards, which you can demonstrate with a tilted hand out the car window; having something spit out gas really fast to propel the aircraft in any direction, which you can demonstrate by letting go of a blown-up balloon; or making something lighter than the surrounding atmosphere so it rises up, which you could demonstrate with either a helium balloon, a sky lantern (eg. candle and a plastic bag) or by showing something buoyant in water and explaining how that can happen in air too.\n\nFurther to these three categories, there are three things that can be important for flight: lift, thrust, and control. Lift is what pushes us upwards from the ground. Thrust is what pushes us forwards. Control is what lets us use flight to go where we want to be. Sometimes these things can be interrelated, eg. thrust is required to give lift, or the mechanism providing lift can also give thrust and/or control.\n\nThere's also a couple other words you might want to define. Altitude is how high in the sky the aircraft is. Drag is when the air pushes against you, causing you to slow down. From these principles, we can look at different kinds of flight.\n\n**Helicopter**, and other tilt-rotor aircraft (eg. Osprey)\n\n*Lift*: A spinning horizontal wing called a rotor pushes down on the air to make the aircraft go up. The rotor is powered by an engine that uses fuel.\n\n*Thrust*: No separate thrust is needed, since the spinning rotor provides lift by itself and controls direction.\n\n*Control*: The rotor can be tilted to go forwards, backwards, left or right. You can go up or down by changing the angle of the rotor blades to generate more or less lift. In helicopters with one main rotor, the spinning will naturally cause the helicopter body to spin the opposite direction. To stop that you use a vertical tail rotor to keep the cockpit facing the direction we want. You can spin left or right by changing the angle of the tail rotor.\n\n**Aeroplane**, aka fixed-wing aircraft\n\n*Lift*: The wings are angled and shaped to push air downwards, but it only works while something else provides the thrust. This kind of flight is most directly demonstrated by the hand out the car window, where the car provides the thrust and your arm/hand is the fixed wing.\n\n*Thrust*: Forward thrust uses [different types of engines](_URL_4_), but common ones are propellers (a vertical rotor), turbine/jet/ramjet (uses fuel to burn incoming air and spit it out really fast backwards), and rockets (burns only the fuel onboard to spit hot air backwards even faster than a jet).\n\n*Control*: Controlling the thrust can cause the aircraft to gain or lose altitude. Flaps are pieces of the wing that can be extended to provide extra lift, or retracted to decrease drag in flight. [Elevators, ailerons and rudders](_URL_2_) are sections of the plane wings and tail that can be tilted to control pitch (pointing the plane up or down along a horizontal axis from left to right), roll (spinning the plane left or right like a corkscrew along a horizontal axis from front to back) and yaw (rotating the direction of the cockpit left or right along a vertical axis from top to bottom) respectively.\n\n**Hot Air Balloon**\n\n*Lift*: The balloon part of the craft, called the envelope, traps hot air. As we know, hot air rises because it is lighter than ambient air, so if you trap enough hot air you can cause the whole craft to rise to different altitudes. In a traditional hot air balloon called a Montgolfier, a fire below the envelope called a burner heats the air inside the envelope. Some hot air balloons called Roziere use lighter-than-air gases like helium or hydrogen as well or instead of hot air, while others called solar balloons use the sun to heat the air.\n\n*Thrust*: No separate thrust is needed.\n\n*Control*: In Montgolfier or hybrid Roziere balloons, the pilot can control the strength of the burner to create more hot air to go up. A vent or valve on top of the envelope allows them to release hot air or the lighter-than-air gas, to go down. Hot air will also naturally cool down, lowering the balloon. Direction is entirely dependent on the wind, but since the wind goes different directions at different altitudes, the pilot can control the direction by changing altitude.\n\n**Animals** (birds, insects etc)\n\n*Lift*: Most flying animals have wings that they can flap really fast to create lift. This is in conjunction with body structures that evolved to allow to flight: light bodies, light wings with high surface area etc. Some animals are small enough to use wind or thermal air currents to get lift. For example some spiders can throw silk in the air which gets caught by the wind to carry them somewhere. Most birds only flap to increase altitude, and glide the majority of the time. Most winged insects have to constantly flap to stay in flight.\n\n*Thrust*: No thrust.\n\n*Control*: Winged animals can move or contort their wings and bodies different ways to fly or glide in the desired direction. [Birds can control roll, pitch and yaw](_URL_0_) just like aeroplanes, while insects simply change the direction they flap their wings. Smaller insects without flapping wings are stuck with wherever the wind takes them.\n\n**Space craft/Rockets**\n\n*Lift/Thrust*: Lift and thrust are the same in a rocket. A big rocket thruster burns fuel to expel hot air to push the rocket. Some of our space craft also have fixed wings to control their return to Earth. Rocket engines are needed because most of the other types of thruster require air, which gets thinner and disappears as you get further away from Earth. Once in orbit, lift and thrust aren't a problem, you just need Control. If you plan to go a long distance in space, rocket thrusters become a problem due to needing fuel, so we've come up with different kinds of thrusters with different energy sources.\n\n*Control*: There are [four ways to control a rocket](_URL_5_). *Moveable fins* can control where the rocket points, similar to the rudder etc on an aeroplane. *Gimbaled thrust* allows the rocket thruster to be rotated in the required direction. *Vernier rockets* are small rockets that can thrust in different directions to control the rocket's direction. *Thrust vanes* can be used to direct the exhaust from the rocket engine. Once in space, space craft are steered with small thrusters, called RCS thrusters, in different places on the craft to steer different directions, these are still powered with fuel or gas.",
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "159472",
"title": "Flight",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
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"text": "Flight is the process by which an object moves through an atmosphere (or beyond it, as in the case of spaceflight) without contact with the surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift associated with propulsive thrust, aerostatically using buoyancy, or by ballistic movement.\n",
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"wikipedia_id": "195193",
"title": "Sky",
"section": "Section::::Use in transportation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 24,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 878,
"text": "Flight is the process by which an object moves through or beyond the sky (as in the case of spaceflight), whether by generating aerodynamic lift, propulsive thrust, aerostatically using buoyancy, or by ballistic movement, without any direct mechanical support from the ground. The engineering aspects of flight are studied in aerospace engineering which is subdivided into aeronautics, which is the study of vehicles that travel through the air, and astronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through space, and in ballistics, the study of the flight of projectiles. While human beings have been capable of flight via hot air balloons since 1783, other species have used flight for significantly longer. Animals, such as birds, bats, and insects are capable of flight. Spores and seeds from plants use flight, via use of the wind, as a method of propagating their species.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "33129250",
"title": "Takeoff and landing",
"section": "Section::::Horizontal takeoff and landing.:Aircraft.:Conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL).:Takeoff.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aircraft goes through a transition from moving along the ground (taxiing) to flying in the air, usually starting on a runway. For balloons, helicopters and some specialized fixed-wing aircraft (VTOL aircraft such as the Harrier), no runway is needed. Takeoff is the opposite of landing.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "165096",
"title": "Takeoff",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
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"text": "For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a transition from moving along the ground on a runway. For balloons, helicopters and some specialized fixed-wing aircraft (VTOL aircraft such as the Harrier), no runway is needed. Takeoff is the opposite of landing.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "316393",
"title": "Air navigation",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Successful air navigation involves piloting an aircraft from place to place without getting lost, not breaking the laws applying to aircraft, or endangering the safety of those on board or on the ground. Air navigation differs from the navigation of surface craft in several ways; Aircraft travel at relatively high speeds, leaving less time to calculate their position en route. Aircraft normally cannot stop in mid-air to ascertain their position at leisure. Aircraft are safety-limited by the amount of fuel they can carry; a surface vehicle can usually get lost, run out of fuel, then simply await rescue. There is no in-flight rescue for most aircraft. Additionally, collisions with obstructions are usually fatal. Therefore, constant awareness of position is critical for aircraft pilots.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "56893512",
"title": "Garbage can model",
"section": "Section::::The Garbage Can Model.:Decision outcomes.:Flight.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 418,
"text": "Flight occurs when a decision is taken after the problem goes away. This happens when problems are attached to choice opportunities for a period of time and exceed the energy of their respective decision makers to stay focused on the problem. The original problem may then move to another choice arena. Examples are tabling, or sending decisions to subcommittees, where the problems may not get attached to solutions.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "33129250",
"title": "Takeoff and landing",
"section": "Section::::Horizontal takeoff and landing.:Aircraft.:Conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL).:Landing.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying aircraft or spacecraft (or animals) returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called \"landing\" and \"touchdown\" as well. A normal aircraft flight would include several parts of flight including taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent and landing.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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| null |
1fpwub | how does fat and energy work? how is it that you burn fat by exercising, but you can have fat and still be out of energy. if i just stop eating, why isn't it that i can be full of energy until my body is out of fat? | [
{
"answer": "This will be a little complicated.\n\nFat is energy, but it's not immediately usable as energy; since cells are the smallest living unit, fat has to be broken down into parts that the cells can use before it is actually usable. Of course, breaking down molecules takes time, as well.\n\nBreaking down the fat releases the usable parts (glucose) into the bloodstream. Your body automatically tries to keep the blood glucose level steady. Why? Because too much blood glucose is inefficient; too little blood glucose is dangerous.\n\nSo when you exercise, you are using up blood glucose. Once the level gets too low, your body will start breaking things down to bring the levels back up. It starts with carbohydrates, because those are easily broken down into glucose. Once those are almost gone, then it starts breaking down the fats. If the fats are running out, then it will turn to proteins and muscle. Light exercise will burn up the carbohydrates. Strenuous or extended exercise will start burning up fats. Flight-or-fight, life-or-death situations will most likely cut into your muscles and proteins.\n\nBecause of this order of energy consumption, your body doesn't like to use too much energy. It doesn't like to start burning up fat, because that is the \"reserve\" energy that the body can use before it goes into full panic mode (burning muscle).\n\nSo when you exercise a lot, your body will grudgingly start breaking up fat. That's why you have to do a lot of strenuous exercise to lose fat; you have to force the body to use its reserve energy.\n\nThe other side of this coin is energy storage. After a meal, when your blood is full of glucose, your body will start storing the energy away for a rainy day. Your body will start turning the extra blood glucose into fats, and storing those fats away for later use. That's why you don't have a huge burst of energy after a meal; all that extra glucose that you are digesting is being turned into fats.",
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"answer": "Body fat is able to provide most of your energy when you're at rest. But when you exercise, your muscles require energy at too high of a rate for fat tissue to continue supplying it, so they start using glycogen, which is the substance your body uses to store carbohydrates. The more fit and muscular you are, the more glycogen you can store in your muscles, but since glycogen is mostly water, your glycogen stores can never even approach your fat stores in terms of total energy. Now take your average Joe who isn't in incredible shape and he can only store a few hundred calories worth of glycogen in his muscles at any given time. Average Joe goes on a run and his muscles need a lot of energy to sustain that activity, and about 70% of that energy will come from glycogen rather than fat. Running burns a lot of calories and within a few minutes his brain will detect the loss in muscle glycogen and send out various signals to make him stop running so he doesn't run out of energy. (Note: if you're in the fight-or-flight mode, your body releases adrenaline which diverts more energy to your muscles while taking it away from other systems. So if you're running from a tiger, you'll be able to run longer.) In addition, Joe's muscles are ill-equipped for running long distances as they don't have many mitochondria (which convert glycogen or fat into ATP) and his heart and lungs aren't that strong (he could improve all of these metrics by increasing his fitness). This is why he'll tire of running after several minutes even though he still has thousands of calories worth of energy locked up in his fat tissue. \n\nIf Joe decided to walk instead, his fat would be able to supply most of his energy since walking isn't as intensive. As a result, most people can walk much longer than they can run, and even burn more calories. (Running is just a lot more time-efficient). However here we run into another problem: the body fat set point. Your brain knows precisely how much body fat your body has and it generally hates losing too much of it. (Your brain doesn't mind gaining body fat though--humans have evolved literally dozens of redundant mechanisms to prevent body fat loss, but only a few weak mechanisms to prevent fat gain.) If you lose two pounds of body fat, your brain will slow down your metabolism and ramp up your appetite until homeostasis is restored. This means you won't feel energetic enough to exercise if your brain has detected a drop in body fat. The main hormone that mediates this process is leptin. The higher your leptin, the lower your appetite, and vice versa. But losing just a few pounds is enough to make your leptin levels plummet by 75%, which is of course disproportionate to how much body fat you actually have. That illustrates the brain's unwillingness to give up body fat.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "The body can only convert so much fat into energy at a time. There's a rough daily limit based on your size and fat % how much fat can be burned in a day. The more fat you have, the more your body can burn.\n\nThis is one of the reasons very overweight people lose a lot of fat quickly at first, then as they get slimmer, it takes longer and longer to lose more. ",
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"answer": "I'm going to use money metaphors here.\n\nThe two sources of energy are fat & sugar, each of them with their own pros and cons. Fat is like a check while sugar is cash. The energy from fat is only limited by how much fat one has in your body, or the bank account. The problem is that, often times, it will take several days for the \"checks\" to clear before that money is useable. So, just because there is a request to use more energy, it will take a while to actually mobilize the fat into useable funds from your bank account (body). \n\nSugar, on the other hand, is like cash. You can use it immediately for as long as you have it available. Only problem is that the body is nearly as good at storing sugar, just like your wallet only has so much room for immediately available funds.\n\n",
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "3757348",
"title": "GLUT4",
"section": "Section::::Tissue distribution.:Adipose tissue.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 18,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 18,
"end_character": 261,
"text": "Adipose tissue, commonly known as fat, is a depository for energy in order to conserve metabolic homeostasis. As the body takes in energy in the form of glucose, some is expended, and the rest is stored as glycogen primarily in the liver, muscle cells, or fat.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "21933440",
"title": "Fatty-acid metabolism disorder",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
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"end_character": 408,
"text": "The body's primary source of energy is glucose; however, when all the glucose in the body has been expended, a normal body digests fats. Individuals with a fatty-acid metabolism disorder are unable to metabolize this fat source for energy, halting bodily processes. Most individuals with a fatty-acid metabolism disorder are able to live a normal active life with simple adjustments to diet and medications.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8460",
"title": "Dieting",
"section": "Section::::How the body eliminates fat.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 30,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 30,
"end_character": 903,
"text": "When the body is expending more energy than it is consuming (e.g. when exercising), the body's cells rely on internally stored energy sources, such as complex carbohydrates and fats, for energy. The first source to which the body turns is glycogen (by glycogenolysis). Glycogen is a complex carbohydrate, 65% of which is stored in skeletal muscles and the remainder in the liver (totaling about 2,000 kcal in the whole body). It is created from the excess of ingested macronutrients, mainly carbohydrates. When glycogen is nearly depleted, the body begins lipolysis, the mobilization and catabolism of fat stores for energy. In this process fats, obtained from adipose tissue, or fat cells, are broken down into glycerol and fatty acids, which can be used to generate energy. The primary by-products of metabolism are carbon dioxide and water; carbon dioxide is expelled through the respiratory system.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "6057429",
"title": "General fitness training",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 203,
"text": "Diet itself helps to increase calorie burning by boosting metabolism, a process further enhanced while gaining more lean muscle. An aerobic exercise program can burn fat and increase the metabolic rate.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "11042",
"title": "Fat",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Fat is an important foodstuff for many forms of life, and fats serve both structural and metabolic functions. They are a necessary part of the diet of most heterotrophs (including humans) and are the most energy dense, thus the most efficient form of energy storage.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "7617805",
"title": "Starvation response",
"section": "Section::::In humans.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 404,
"text": "Ordinarily, the body responds to reduced energy intake by burning fat reserves and consuming muscle and other tissues. Specifically, the body burns fat after first exhausting the contents of the digestive tract along with glycogen reserves stored in liver cells and after significant protein loss . After prolonged periods of starvation, the body uses the proteins within muscle tissue as a fuel source.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "29735179",
"title": "Management of obesity",
"section": "Section::::Exercise.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 473,
"text": "With use, muscles consume energy derived from both fat and glycogen. Due to the large size of leg muscles, walking, running, and cycling are the most effective means of exercise to reduce body fat. Exercise affects macronutrient balance. During moderate exercise, equivalent to a brisk walk, there is a shift to greater use of fat as a fuel. To maintain health, the American Heart Association recommends a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least 5 days a week.\n",
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| null |
a3i9ir | how does accutane exactly work, what does it do with the body system, and why do results vary from person to person? | [
{
"answer": "The Accutane molecule is similar in shape to Vitamin A. It stops sebaceous glands from working. Think of it as turning off the faucet that pumps the gunk into the acne. It doesn't work for everyone because it doesn't work for every time of acne. It works best for the big nodular acne, because that is mostly caused by overproduction from sebaceous glands. Other types of acne have different causes.\n\nI don't quite understand what you mean by it affecting the body system.\n\nI hope this helps.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "It's a Vitamin A derivative. Basically it shuts down some of your skin glands which makes your skin super dry. The lack of oils on your skin causes acne to stop and often some other symptoms associated with dry skin such as chapped lips, flakiness, and dry eyes. \n\nIn order to affect your skin, it also enters and travels through most of your body, including blood, pancreas, bowels, and cardiovascular system. Because of it's strength, it can have negative impacts on those parts of your body. \n\nSome people's bodies handle these impacts better than others, in the same way that everyone has a different reaction to alcohol or weed. For instance, people with a family history of psychiatric problems will be more likely to experience similar problems on Accutane. The same applies to most drugs and most side effects. \n\nI was on Accutane about 4 years ago. If you're on or about to go on, I'd be more than happy to talk about my experience. Hope all is well and this helped",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Not a doctor here but I was on accutane for 6 months during high school. \n\nPainfully dry skin and horribly chapped lips were definitely there. \n\nI had no psychiatric problems before but I was definitely affected by depression for those entire 6 months. No suicidal thoughts but it was really bad. No joy left in me on a daily basis. When I stopped taking accutane the depression lifted. \n\nI know it’s anecdotal evidence but something to consider...",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "Hey, accutane is actually isotretinoin. I remember suffering from severe acne in high school. I cannot really describe the types of acne I used to have but I can sure say that they didn’t stick to a particular type, they varied. I was put on isotretinoin 20mg for about 3 months (oral administration of the mentioned medicine). I did not really face many side effects but it did dry my skin up, my doctor had prescribed a moisturiser along with the meds for that. Except for that, fortunately nothing went wrong and it worked like magic. It’s been 2 years I’ve been off those meds now and my skin is clear, actually very clear.\n\nMy personal advice would be to have them and try them if prescribed. Side effects vary from people to people. It isn’t necessary that you’ll face the same side effects as me or anybody else who’s been on isotretinoin. If you face any severe side effects in the first few weeks of having them, you should immediately let your doctor know about it. If you don’t, you’re most probably good to go but I’d again ask you to be under regular guidance of your doctor. If you’re worried about your skin drying up as it is the most common side effect (as per my knowledge), make sure you ask your doctor about it and ask him/her for a medicated/non medicated moisturiser to help with the dry skin.\n\n\nYour doctor might also prescribe you an ointment for immediate relief from the existing acne. In my case it was Retino A 0.025. It worked pretty well for me but if applied more than the desired quantity it ended up burning my skin. So be careful about the ointments too, ask for instructions. \n\n\n\nDon’t search the internet too much, I tried the same. There’s nothing here besides people’s opinions. Honestly speaking, acne makes you feel embarrassed and miserable but it’s just a phase really. Don’t let it get into you, there are greater things in life to do than fussing over this. You’ll get the treatment, you’ll be better. Don’t worry, good luck. :) ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "8798984",
"title": "Ambroxol",
"section": "Section::::Mechanism of action.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
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"text": "The substance acts on mucus membranes, restoring the physiological clearance mechanisms of the respiratory tract (which play an important role in the body’s natural defence mechanisms) through several mechanisms, including breaking up phlegm, stimulating mucus production, and stimulating synthesis and release of surfactant by type II pneumocytes. Surfactant acts as an anti-glue factor by reducing the adhesion of mucus to the bronchial wall, in improving its transport and in providing protection against infection and irritating agents.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "18827020",
"title": "Troxipide",
"section": "Section::::Mechanism of action.:Stimulation of mucosal microcirculation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 375,
"text": "Troxipide enhances mucosal blood flow, which is the secondary defense barrier of gastric mucosa that supplies nutrients and oxygen to the epithelium, and removes, dilutes and neutralizes toxic substances that have diffused into the mucosa from the lumen. The increment in mucosal blood flow with troxipide is more pronounced in the gastric antrum than in the gastric corpus.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "52402487",
"title": "Estradiol (medication)",
"section": "Section::::Pharmacology.:Pharmacokinetics.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 56,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 56,
"end_character": 1010,
"text": "Estradiol can be taken by a variety of different routes of administration. These include oral, buccal, sublingual, intranasal, transdermal (gels, creams, patches), vaginal (tablets, creams, rings, suppositories), rectal, by intramuscular or subcutaneous injection (in oil or aqueous), and as a subcutaneous implant. The pharmacokinetics of estradiol, including its bioavailability, metabolism, biological half-life, and other parameters, differ by route of administration. Likewise, the potency of estradiol, and its local effects in certain tissues, most importantly the liver, differ by route of administration as well. In particular, the oral route is subject to a high first-pass effect, which results in high levels of estradiol and consequent estrogenic effects in the liver and low potency due to first-pass hepatic and intestinal metabolism into metabolites like estrone and estrogen conjugates. Conversely, this is not the case for parenteral (non-oral) routes, which bypass the intestines and liver.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "57969034",
"title": "Pharmacokinetics of estradiol",
"section": "Section::::Routes of administration.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 1010,
"text": "Estradiol can be taken by a variety of different routes of administration. These include oral, buccal, sublingual, intranasal, transdermal (gels, creams, patches), vaginal (tablets, creams, rings, suppositories), rectal, by intramuscular or subcutaneous injection (in oil or aqueous), and as a subcutaneous implant. The pharmacokinetics of estradiol, including its bioavailability, metabolism, biological half-life, and other parameters, differ by route of administration. Likewise, the potency of estradiol, and its local effects in certain tissues, most importantly the liver, differ by route of administration as well. In particular, the oral route is subject to a high first-pass effect, which results in high levels of estradiol and consequent estrogenic effects in the liver and low potency due to first-pass hepatic and intestinal metabolism into metabolites like estrone and estrogen conjugates. Conversely, this is not the case for parenteral (non-oral) routes, which bypass the intestines and liver.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "57969031",
"title": "Pharmacodynamics of estradiol",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 237,
"text": "Estradiol can be taken by mouth, held under the tongue, as a gel or patch that is applied to the skin, in through the vagina, by injection into muscle or fat, or through the use of an implant that is placed into fat, among other routes.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "57969034",
"title": "Pharmacokinetics of estradiol",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Estradiol can be taken by mouth, held under the tongue, as a gel or patch that is applied to the skin, in through the vagina, by injection into muscle or fat, or through the use of an implant that is placed into fat, among other routes.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "25082500",
"title": "Rectal administration",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 263,
"text": "Rectal administration uses the rectum as a route of administration for medication and other fluids, which are absorbed by the rectum's blood vessels, and flow into the body's circulatory system, which distributes the drug to the body's organs and bodily systems.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
1jgpg7 | What really happened in melee combat? | [
{
"answer": "I recommend reading the first few chapters of \"Face of Battle\" by Keegan. It describes, with some detail, hand-to-hand combat in the Hundred Years War. It doesn't get into the classic hoplite battles you are probably referencing but it does go into things like the types of wounds suffered from blade weapons, maces, battle axes, cavalry charges, arrows, etc. This was a few hundred years before we saw the wide-scale use of firearms and artillery.",
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"answer": "Robert L. O'Connell's *The Ghosts of Cannae* opens with a fairly detailed description of the legendary Roman defeat.\n\nNot sure how much I'm allowed to transcribe into this reply, but the overarching picture is one of chaos and desperation. Men savagely slashing at one another's vitals in the suffocating heat of summer, wounded soldiers crying in agony, and the unimaginable terror and despair experienced by the Romans when they realised retreat had been cut off.",
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"answer": "It really varies wildly based on culture, time, technology, organization, numbers, etc. Despite being from a post-gunpowder era, I feel you might be interested in a clash of pikes.\n\nDrawing from my study, the early 16th century, if serious combat was joined it was likely to be a clash of equally matched pike formations. If one side had a serious advantage due to flanking, supporting gunfire, or other factors then the combat was likely to end quickly in a rout or retreat (or massacre). Otherwise, you'd have the famous \"bad war\" or \"push of pike\".\n\nWhile one side might brace to receive a charge, it was more common for both to charge as soon as they were close enough to try and gain an advantage in the ensuing melee. The two formations would slam together, and pikes would pierce people and throw them to the ground. The armored front ranks might fare surprisingly well, but the pikes would reach back to the greener troops behind the first few ranks who would have less complete suits of plate and slice into their flesh. The formations would push and shove against each other in a horrid mass of pikes, men, and mud as the earth beneath their feet stirred into dust. Soldiers further back would try and drag their wounded friends away from the melee, and humanely dispatch mortally wounded enemies with a quick thrust of a sidearm (dagger or sword), but there was serious risk of being trampled to death if wounded.\n\nAdditional pike formations might join the clash or create others nearby, but eventually enough time would pass that auxiliary infantry would be able to join, or they might have already been attached to the formation. These are dedicated troops that are meant to turn the tide in a push of pike, and whichever formation had included more of them would have a serious advantage. Soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire might bring along two-handed swordsmen, who would try to hack their way into the enemy formation or (maybe) cut the enemy's pikes into pieces. The Swiss would have their halberdiers join their pikemen in pushing, but the halberds could be drawn backwards and forwards to saw through armor and into men's bodies. The Spanish would send fighter in plate armor, steel shields, and nimble swords to slip past/under/to the side of enemy pikes and stab at the men in the formation - even sliding/wriggling over the ground if it was muddy enough.\n\nThis screaming, cursing, struggling mass of men would continue shoving against each other until one side had enough and fled, often dropping their pikes in the process, or disengaged and retreated. This could be caused by flank attacks by cavalry or other infantry, the soldiers suffering too much psychological trauma to go on, or point blank arquebus and/or crossbow fire breaking their cohesion. Officers would seek to prevent this by quickly directing troops to gaps, keeping an eye out for flankers or missile troops, and rallying the troops to keep fighting.\n\nDuring these battles, small units of arquebusiers or crossbowmen would often be intermingled with the formation and fire point blank into the enemy's faces. In the Battle of Ceresole, the French included an entire line of arquebusiers right behind the first rank of Swiss pikemen. They caused a dreadful slaughter among the opposing Landschneckt, but must have not enjoyed it when the lines met. Regardless, bullets and crossbow bolts would be flying into the front ranks and flanks, who would trust to luck and their armor to deflect the worst of the damage.\n\nYou can see how critical morale would be in this kind of warfare - a single man dropping his pike and fleeing could be enough to start a rout. \"Bad war\" was deeply feared by all soldiers, and pike formations tried their best to ensure that the clash was on terms that was very favorable to them - but the realities of combat meant that matched encounters of pikes occurred in most major battles.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[Here](_URL_0_) is a my favorite article about this. It's called the Face of Roman Battle (playing off of the Face of Battle) and it seeks to answer the question of what, exactly, occurred in the Roman infantry battle. \n\nHe uses the times we have for battles (many of which are hours long) to reconstruct what could have happened. Basically, for battles that long, you can't have that much actual sword fighting going on as it would tire people too quickly. So he proposes something very similar to a combination of your points: the lines drawn up a few (maybe more like 20) meters apart, taunting and using missile weapons, then a charge b one side or the other. The charged side would either move back ('driving the enemy back' is a common phrase that gets tossed around by ancient writers) or take the charge, at which point there would be a brief clash with weapons and then one side or the other would withdraw. It is the job of the Centurions or equivalent NCO types to make sure that your side is the one charging and the one moving forward rather than back. This is very hard because people don't want to be stabbed (even less than they want to be shot--think about how scary bayonets were/are).\n\nThis, of course, doesn't answer your question for anything non-Roman, especially the raging debate over what happened in hoplite battle (pushing? stabbing?) but I hope it helps at least with that.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you're looking for a very detailed description of hoplite warfare, Victor Hanson, _The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece_ has a _lot_ of detail in it. ",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4813388",
"title": "The Da Vinci Code (video game)",
"section": "Section::::Gameplay.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 764,
"text": "Melee combat is split into two phases. In the first phase, the player approaches an enemy and attempts to punch them, as with most beat 'em up games. If the player successfully hits the enemy, the game enters attack mode. If the player misses and is instead attacked themselves, the game enters defense mode. Both modes are identical insofar as the player must enter a sequence of button presses before the timer runs out. If they do so correctly, they will successfully attack or block the enemy. If they run out of time or press the wrong buttons, they will be attacked or blocked themselves. Players can also push enemies away and attempt to flee from combat, and they can attempt to avoid combat altogether by sneaking up behind enemies and knocking them out.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "21264188",
"title": "SCA armoured combat",
"section": "Section::::Competitions.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 16,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 16,
"end_character": 373,
"text": "Melee tournaments can include a number of combatants taking to the field. Especially at large events such as Pennsic War, combats may include wars, where large number of participants can take the field at once, and these may include archers, artillery and fortifications. Sometimes, novelty combat may occur, where for instance, the fighters take the form of chess pieces.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "11008279",
"title": "Space Lords",
"section": "Section::::Modes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 18,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 18,
"end_character": 640,
"text": "The Melee mode tosses the players into an arena with any number of the computer-controlled races (but no ships like the players' except those of the players themselves). In Melee, it is \"every man for himself,\" with the computer-controlled races even fighting each other. Alliances and truces can be formed between players, but nothing is binding. Once a player enters the arena, they are there until they die; nothing else returns them to the main menu. Upon dying, if the player still has lives remaining, they may reenter the arena if they wish. Destroying the computer-controlled ships in this mode simply \"spawns\" more ships to fight.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "32058897",
"title": "Song of Blades and Heroes",
"section": "Section::::Gameplay.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 512,
"text": "Melee combat is simultaneous and determined by opposed D6 rolls, modified by the character's Combat value and situational modifiers such as outnumbering or a surprise bonus (called ambush bonus in the rules). Beating an opponent means that he must recoil one base away or fall down; doubling an opponent's score (e.g., an 8 to 4)means that the opponent is killed; and tripling the opponent's score (e.g., a 9 to 3) means that he is gruesomely killed and all friends witnessing his death must make a morale roll.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "15624768",
"title": "Melee (game)",
"section": "Section::::Gameplay.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 261,
"text": "\"Melee\" was an arena combat game where each player generated a character by purchasing Strength, Dexterity and equipment as part of a point-based character creation system, and then these characters fought via a tactical combat system that used six-sided dice.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "22747733",
"title": "Military tactics in Ancient Greece",
"section": "Section::::Land tactics.:Melee.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 24,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 24,
"end_character": 483,
"text": "Melee, or hand-to-hand combat, occurred most often after the tight formation of the phalanx dispersed. This fighting was also often referred to as dorarismos, meaning \"spear-fighting\" because the hoplites would use small swords in the fighting. One example of melee combat is described by Herodotus during a battle at Thermopylae. Herodotus reports that after the Spartans had lost their spears and swords during the dorarismos, they continued fighting \"with their hands and teeth.\"\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "40132455",
"title": "Dead Rising",
"section": "Section::::Games.:Main series.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
"end_character": 803,
"text": "The melee combat system consists of using everything as a weapon, most of the items in the game can be used, as some weapons are very effective, but others are comedically inefficient, in addition weapons constantly break forcing the player to constantly use different weapons. \"Dead Rising 2\" introduced a \"Combo Weapons\" system, where the player can combine certain items into more powerful weapons, some of which are over-the-top, such as a lightsaber, made by combining a flashlight with jewelry. \"Dead Rising 3\" enhanced the mechanic by introducing \"Combo Vehicles\" allowing players to combine items with vehicles and even vehicles with other vehicles to make more powerful vehicles, for instance a motorcycle with a chainsaw creates the \"slicecycle\", a motorcycle with two chainsaws at the sides.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
75m3zu | What burns during re-entry? | [
{
"answer": "The other answers are right, but I'll add that sometimes there is something sort of \"burning\" on spaceships that is relevant to your question. One of the most effective ways to passively cool anything exposed to conditions as extreme as reentry or the inside of a rocket nozzle is to coat it with an [ablative layer](_URL_0_) that is designed to vaporize in the heat. This is how most heat shields work. The heating effects are conducted by the coating which then vaporizes, and the resulting vapor forms a protective cushion between the incoming air and the vessel. I believe the process also passively removes some of the heat from the shield as a side effect since it's carried away by the hot vapor.\n\nThis method is also used in the nozzles of some rocket engines in cases where it would be excessively expensive or heavy to incorporate an active cooling system (such as the often-used method of piping the cryogenic propellant through the walls of the nozzle before combustion, which is effective but complex).",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "There is not burning from reentry, but heat to the point where the air becomes ionized and a plasma, and the material is red hot and begins to vaporize. \n\nWhat is occurring is shock heating, or heat due to change in pressure. It is known that when a gas expands, it cools, and in the same way, when it is compressed it heats up. \n\nOn several miles a second projectiles, the pressure will be so extreme that temperatures reach thousands of degrees. ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": "Very good answers given already. But there is a peculiar footnote in the annals of space technology that early Chinese spacecrafts designed for reentry/recovery used heat shields made of wood. It really did \"burn\" as it ablated away to protect its payload from the ordeal of returning into the Earth's atmosphere. [Vintage space has a good write up.](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
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{
"wikipedia_id": "21766243",
"title": "Thermal burn",
"section": "Section::::Treatment.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 28,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 28,
"end_character": 780,
"text": "The most important first action is to stop the burning process. The source of the burn should promptly be removed (or the patient removed from the source). If the person is on fire, he/she must be told to stop, drop and roll, or extinguish the fire by covering them with heavy blanket, wool, coat, or rug. Burning clothing should be removed as should all jewelry that could act as a tourniquet as swelling occurs, but burned clothing stuck to the skin must not be removed. Cooling the burn with cold running water has been shown to be beneficial if accomplished within 30 minutes of the injury. The pain or inflammation can then be effectively treated using acetaminophen (paracetamol), or ibuprofen. Ice, butter, cream and ointment cannot be used since they can worsen the burn.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "59007487",
"title": "Camp Fire (2018)",
"section": "Section::::Impact.:Environmental.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 76,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 76,
"end_character": 242,
"text": "Recovery efforts were slowed as crews tested burned debris for environmental contaminants such as asbestos, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, arsenic, dioxins, and other hazardous materials that may have burned or spread in the fire.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4848748",
"title": "Yaoundé train explosion",
"section": "Section::::Details.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 420,
"text": "The emergency services arrived on the scene soon after the blaze started, but were for a long time held back by the force of the flames, which they were only able to contain, not extinguish. The fire did not stop burning for at least a day, and there were fears it might spread to the nearby central petroleum depot at Nsiam, although this was avoided. For days, a column of black smoke hung over the area of the blast.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "187359",
"title": "Campfire",
"section": "Section::::Extinguishing the fire.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 54,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 54,
"end_character": 329,
"text": "Leaving a fire unattended can be dangerous. Any number of accidents might occur in the absence of people, leading to property damage, personal injury or possibly a wildfire. Ash is a good insulator, so embers left overnight only lose a fraction of their heat. It is often possible to restart the new day's fire using the embers.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "1306745",
"title": "Burn-in",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 343,
"text": "Burn-in is the process by which components of a system are exercised prior to being placed in service (and often, prior to the system being completely assembled from those components). This testing process will force certain failures to occur under supervised conditions so an understanding of load capacity of the product can be established.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2352975",
"title": "Holmes on Homes",
"section": "Section::::List of episodes.:Season Five.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 105,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 105,
"end_character": 439,
"text": "BULLET::::7. \"Out of the Ashes\" (Two 1-hour parts) - A previous contractor hired by the homeowners insurance company to repair the home after an electrical fire leaves behind incomplete and substandard work. Mike and crew arrive and, after completely gutting the home, find they must remove asbestos insulation from the basement and do a full toxic-waste remediation caused by leakage from a heating-oil tank left buried in the back yard.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14779725",
"title": "Fire extinguisher",
"section": "Section::::Types of extinguishing agents.:Halons, Halon-replacement clean agents and carbon dioxide.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 72,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 72,
"end_character": 420,
"text": "Clean agents extinguish fire by displacing oxygen (CO or inert gases), removing heat from the combustion zone (Halotron-1, FE-36, Novec 1230) or inhibiting the chemical chain reaction (Halons). They are referred to as clean agents because they do not leave any residue after discharge which is ideal for protecting sensitive electronics, aircraft, armored vehicles and archival storage, museums, and valuable documents.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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| null |
7foujg | how are there different "types" of spicy sensations from eating spicy food? | [
{
"answer": "Because there are different compounds interacting with different receptors.\nPeppers have capsaicin, which triggers the same receptors as hot temperature receptors.\n\nWasabi and mustards have isothiocyanates, a different compound. They are also short lived due to not being oily and volatile, meaning they can easily be washed away, or they evaporate away.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "1381306",
"title": "Sweat gland",
"section": "Section::::Sweat.:Stimuli.:Gustatory.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 47,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 47,
"end_character": 461,
"text": "Gustatory sweating refers to thermal sweating induced by the ingestion of food. The increase in metabolism caused by ingestion raises body temperature, leading to thermal sweating. Hot and spicy foods also leads to mild gustatory sweating in the face, scalp and neck: capsaicin (the compound that makes spicy food taste \"hot\"), binds to receptors in the mouth that detect warmth. The increased stimulation of such receptors induces a thermoregulatory response.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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{
"wikipedia_id": "19770199",
"title": "Peter pepper",
"section": "Section::::The most pornographic pepper.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 706,
"text": "There is a general belief that eating spicy food and chili pepper in particular heats up passion, but as Jon Bonné says in an article on MSNBC, \"it's a big leap from heat in the mouth to heat between the sheets.\" The penile shape Bonné signals is confirmed by Michael Albertson and Ellen Albertson in their book \"Temptations: Igniting the Pleasure and Power of Aphrodisiacs\": the pepper is what \"he looks like...This very hot Latin lover likes to brag about his size and heat. (What man doesn't?)\" Another name for peter pepper is \"the Chilli Willy peppers\". The uniquely shaped chilis have won a few awards, including the right to be called \"The Most Pornographic Pepper\" by \"Organic Gardening Magazine\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "21282070",
"title": "Taste",
"section": "Section::::Further sensations and transmission.:Pungency (also spiciness or hotness).\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 65,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 65,
"end_character": 839,
"text": "Substances such as ethanol and capsaicin cause a burning sensation by inducing a trigeminal nerve reaction together with normal taste reception. The sensation of heat is caused by the food's activating nerves that express TRPV1 and TRPA1 receptors. Some such plant-derived compounds that provide this sensation are capsaicin from chili peppers, piperine from black pepper, gingerol from ginger root and allyl isothiocyanate from horseradish. The piquant (\"hot\" or \"spicy\") sensation provided by such foods and spices plays an important role in a diverse range of cuisines across the world—especially in equatorial and sub-tropical climates, such as Ethiopian, Peruvian, Hungarian, Indian, Korean, Indonesian, Lao, Malaysian, Mexican, New Mexican, Singaporean, Southwest Chinese (including Szechuan cuisine), Vietnamese, and Thai cuisines.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "54000061",
"title": "Neurogastronomy",
"section": "Section::::Decision making.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 325,
"text": "Although the consumption of spicy food can cause pain, people in many cultures ascribe a high hedonic value to it. Psychologist Paul Rozin puts forth the idea of \"benign masochism\", a learned tendency that overrides the typically aversive stimuli because of the risk-taking or thrill-seeking associated with overcoming pain.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "21282070",
"title": "Taste",
"section": "Section::::Further sensations and transmission.:Pungency (also spiciness or hotness).\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 66,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 66,
"end_character": 742,
"text": "This particular sensation, called chemesthesis, is not a taste in the technical sense, because the sensation does not arise from taste buds, and a different set of nerve fibers carry it to the brain. Foods like chili peppers activate nerve fibers directly; the sensation interpreted as \"hot\" results from the stimulation of somatosensory (pain/temperature) fibers on the tongue. Many parts of the body with exposed membranes but no taste sensors (such as the nasal cavity, under the fingernails, surface of the eye or a wound) produce a similar sensation of heat when exposed to hotness agents. Asian countries within the sphere of, mainly, Chinese, Indian, and Japanese cultural influence, often wrote of pungency as a fifth or sixth taste.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "37699896",
"title": "Vanilloids",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 317,
"text": "A number of vanilloids, most notably capsaicin, bind to the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) receptor, an ion channel which naturally responds to noxious stimuli such as high temperatures and acidic pH. This action is responsible for the burning sensation experienced after eating spicy peppers.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "14315108",
"title": "Dysosmia",
"section": "Section::::Pathophysiology.:Olfaction and flavor.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 38,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 38,
"end_character": 587,
"text": "Flavor is perceived by the combination of the sense of taste, sense of smell, and the trigeminal nerve (CN V). The gustatory system is responsible for differentiation between sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. The olfactory system recognizes the odorants as they pass to the olfactory epithelium via a retronasal pathway. This explains why we can identify a variety of flavors in spite of only having five types of taste receptors. The trigeminal nerve senses texture, pain, and temperature of food. For example, the cooling effect of menthol or the burning sensation of spicy food.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
33g1zu | How is it that humans can learn vocal language to virtually perfect speech yet still be illiterate? | [
{
"answer": "Most of this is because the mapping of symbols on the page to sounds is arbitrary. When speaking you're mapping sounds to meaning. This is something you brain has specifically evolved to handle.\n\nFor written text we've invented some arbitrary symbols, we've decided that they map to specific phonemes (or they map in a context dependant manner). Mapping shapes on a page to sounds/words and then mapping that to meaning is something you specifically have to learn. It's an additional skill above and beyond learning to speak a language and you need to learn it. I can speak a number of things in Thai and Korean but I literally have no idea what those things look like on the page nor have any understanding of what sounds their lettering represents.\n\nAlongside this many, many people have dyslexia or related issues with written comprehension which make learning to read non-trivial for them.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5366050",
"title": "Speech perception",
"section": "Section::::Research topics.:Noise.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 74,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 74,
"end_character": 708,
"text": "One of the fundamental problems in the study of speech is how to deal with noise. This is shown by the difficulty in recognizing human speech that computer recognition systems have. While they can do well at recognizing speech if trained on a specific speaker's voice and under quiet conditions, these systems often do poorly in more realistic listening situations where humans would understand speech without relative difficulty. To emulate processing patterns that would be held in the brain under normal conditions, prior knowledge is a key neural factor, since a robust learning history may to an extent override the extreme masking effects involved in the complete absence of continuous speech signals.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "36253964",
"title": "Origin of speech",
"section": "Section::::Evolution of the speech organs.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 252,
"text": "Speaking is the default modality for language in all cultures. Humans' first recourse is to encode our thoughts in sound — a method which depends on sophisticated capacities for controlling the lips, tongue and other components of the vocal apparatus.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "42799",
"title": "Speech synthesis",
"section": "Section::::Applications.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 124,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 124,
"end_character": 597,
"text": "Speech synthesis has long been a vital assistive technology tool and its application in this area is significant and widespread. It allows environmental barriers to be removed for people with a wide range of disabilities. The longest application has been in the use of screen readers for people with visual impairment, but text-to-speech systems are now commonly used by people with dyslexia and other reading difficulties as well as by pre-literate children. They are also frequently employed to aid those with severe speech impairment usually through a dedicated voice output communication aid.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "302109",
"title": "Accessibility",
"section": "Section::::Disability, information technology (IT) and telecommunications.:Examples of common assistive technologies.:Communication (including speech) impairments.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 115,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 115,
"end_character": 490,
"text": "A communication disorder interferes with the ability to produce clearly understandable speech. There can be many different causes, such as nerve degeneration, muscle degeneration, stroke, and vocal cord injury. The modern method to deal with speaking disabilities has been to provide a text interface for a speech synthesizer for complete vocal disability. This can be a great improvement for people that have been limited to the use of a throat vibrator to produce speech since the 1960s.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8340340",
"title": "Postmortem studies",
"section": "Section::::Background.:Wernicke.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 265,
"text": "Karl Wernicke also used postmortem studies to link specific areas of the brain with speech production. However his research focused more on patients who could speak, however their speech made little sense and/or had trouble understanding spoken words or sentences.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "245471",
"title": "Child prodigy",
"section": "Section::::Development.:Special needs of gifted children.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 336,
"text": "Specialists theorize that the spoken word can be difficult for some gifted children because they have the added task of translating the complex ideas in their heads into language that others of similar age can understand. This process can lead to abnormal hesitation when speaking, stuttering, and frustration on the part of the child.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "30872390",
"title": "Prelingual deafness",
"section": "Section::::Language acquisition.:Speech acquisition.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 1242,
"text": "Deaf children do not acquire speech the same as hearing children because they cannot hear the language spoken around them. In normal language acquisition, auditory comprehension precedes the development of language. Without auditory input, a person with prelingual deafness is forced to acquire speech visually through lip-reading. Acquiring spoken language through lip-reading alone is challenging for the deaf child because it does not always accurately represent speech sounds. The likelihood of a deaf child successfully learning to speak is based on a variety of factors including: ability to discriminate between speech sounds, a higher than average non-verbal IQ, and a higher socioeconomic status. Despite being fitted with hearing aids or provided with oral instruction and speech therapy at a young age, prelingually deaf children are unlikely to ever develop perfect speech and speech-reception skills. Some researchers conclude that deaf children taught exclusively through spoken language appear to pass through the same general stages of language acquisition as their hearing peers but without reaching the same ultimate level of proficiency. Spoken language that may develop for prelingually deaf children is severely delayed.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
7oox29 | how do furnaces work? | [
{
"answer": "fire from natural gas (or whatever the gas source is) being pushed through the vents via a blower fan",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "52585846",
"title": "Industrial furnace",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 241,
"text": "An industrial furnace is an equipment used to provide heat for a process or can serve as reactor which provides heats of reaction. Furnace designs vary as to its function, heating duty, type of fuel and method of introducing combustion air.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "50521670",
"title": "Stassano furnace",
"section": "Section::::Functioning.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 662,
"text": "The furnace is initially loaded with the material to be fused, which is introduced into the crucible from the charge door. Once the loading is completed, current is sent to the electrodes, which generate an electrical arc between them. The arc produces heat which is transmitted to the material to be melted through thermal radiation heat transfer, which is why the furnace is referred to as an indirect or radiant arc device. During the process, the charge door can be reopened to introduce into the crucible further amounts of scrap and cast iron. When all the material has been melted, it undergoes a first refining before it is poured out from the taphole. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "238150",
"title": "Furnace",
"section": "Section::::Industrial furnaces.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 49,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 49,
"end_character": 323,
"text": "An industrial furnace or direct fired heater, is an equipment used to provide heat for a process or can serve as reactor which provides heats of reaction. Furnace designs vary as to its function, heating duty, type of fuel and method of introducing combustion air. However, most process furnaces have some common features.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2852265",
"title": "Puddling (metallurgy)",
"section": "Section::::Puddling furnace.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 28,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 28,
"end_character": 429,
"text": "The puddling furnace is a metalmaking technology used to create wrought iron or steel from the pig iron produced in a blast furnace. The furnace is constructed to pull the hot air over the iron without the fuel coming into direct contact with the iron, a system generally known as a reverberatory furnace or open hearth furnace. The major advantage of this system is keeping the impurities of the fuel separated from the charge.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "182208",
"title": "Heat treating",
"section": "Section::::Furnace types.:Batch furnaces.:Pit furnaces.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 103,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 103,
"end_character": 358,
"text": "Furnaces which are constructed in a pit and extend to floor level or slightly above are called pit furnaces. Workpieces can be suspended from fixtures, held in baskets or placed on bases in the furnace. Pit furnaces are suited to heating long tubes, shafts and rods by holding them in a vertical position. This manner of loading provides minimal distortion.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "297203",
"title": "Blast furnace",
"section": "Section::::Modern process.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 49,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 49,
"end_character": 500,
"text": "The \"casthouse\" at the bottom half of the furnace contains the bustle pipe, water cooled copper tuyeres and the equipment for casting the liquid iron and slag. Once a \"taphole\" is drilled through the refractory clay plug, liquid iron and slag flow down a trough through a \"skimmer\" opening, separating the iron and slag. Modern, larger blast furnaces may have as many as four tapholes and two casthouses. Once the pig iron and slag has been tapped, the taphole is again plugged with refractory clay.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "445536",
"title": "Oven",
"section": "Section::::Industrial, scientific, and artisanal use.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 32,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 32,
"end_character": 523,
"text": "BULLET::::- A furnace can be used either to provide heat to a building or used to melt substances such as glass or metal for further processing. A blast furnace is a particular type of furnace generally associated with metal smelting (particularly steel manufacture) using refined coke or similar hot-burning substance as a fuel, with air pumped in under pressure to increase the temperature of the fire. A blacksmith uses a temporarily blown furnace, the smith's heart to heat iron to a glowing red to yellow temperature.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
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]
| null |
v4bqz | Would it be possible for Jupiter and/or Saturn to ignite? | [
{
"answer": "If you did mean set on fire as in a spark causing the hyrdrogen to ignite, no. Oxygen is required for hydrogen to combust, and the composition of Jupiter as far as we're aware contains only a very small amount oxygen.\n\nAlso although not a very scientific approach, considering that it's 4.5billion years old now, if it were possible for it to spontaneously combust it probably would have done by now anyway.",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4278905",
"title": "Jupiter in fiction",
"section": "Section::::Other mentions of Jupiter.:Animation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 91,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 91,
"end_character": 265,
"text": "BULLET::::- In the anime \"Heroic Age\", Jupiter is destroyed when a high-powered energy gun is used to knock the moon Io out of orbit. Io plummets into the atmosphere and ignites it, and intervention by the Silver and Bronze fleets leads to a cataclysmic explosion.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6747424",
"title": "Jupiter's moons in fiction",
"section": "Section::::Io.:Film and television.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 61,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 61,
"end_character": 257,
"text": "BULLET::::- \"Heroic Age\" (2007), anime. Jupiter is destroyed when a high-powered energy gun is used to knock Io out of orbit. It plummets into the atmosphere and ignites it, and intervention by the Silver and Bronze fleets leads to a cataclysmic explosion.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4278905",
"title": "Jupiter in fiction",
"section": "Section::::Jovian system.:Games.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 67,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 67,
"end_character": 223,
"text": "BULLET::::- In the PlayStation RPG Final Fantasy VII, Jupiter is destroyed by a comet during Sephiroth's super nova spell sequence. The comet darts through Jupiter, creating a large hole, and causing the planet to implode.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "6785698",
"title": "Phaeton (hypothetical planet)",
"section": "Section::::Other hypotheses.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 17,
"end_character": 386,
"text": "The astronomer and author Tom Van Flandern held that Phaeton exploded through some internal mechanism. In his \"Exploded Planet Hypothesis 2000\", he lists possible reasons for its explosion: a runaway nuclear reaction of uranium in its core, a change of state as the planet cooled down creating a density phase change, or through continual absorption of heat in the core from gravitons.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "958566",
"title": "Space Patrol (1962 TV series)",
"section": "Section::::Episode listing.:Series One/A.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 50,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 50,
"end_character": 365,
"text": "BULLET::::- Explosion on the Sun – An explosion on the surface of Sun causes a temperature rise on Earth and Venus. The Venusian president is contacted by Dr. Duncan, who has been causing the explosions by firing a freighter of beryllium into the Sun. He threatens to release further charges unless Earth and Venus send weapons and robots to Ganymede. (DVD Disc 4)\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
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"wikipedia_id": "23696870",
"title": "2009 Jupiter impact event",
"section": "Section::::Findings.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 314,
"text": "The force of the explosion on Jupiter was thousands of times more powerful than the suspected comet or asteroid that exploded over the Tunguska River Valley in Siberia in June 1908. (This would be approximately 12,500–13,000 Megatons of TNT, over a million times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.)\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "43515078",
"title": "The Secret of the Ninth Planet",
"section": "Section::::Plot.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 484,
"text": "At Saturn they find the Sun-tap station on Iapetus and, wary of booby traps, drop an H-bomb on it. At Uranus the Sun-tap station sits on Oberon and again they wipe it out with a bomb. Then they head toward Pluto, figuring that they will hit the Sun-tap station at Neptune on their way home. They soon overtake the half-ruined Plutonian ship, which hits \"Magellan\" with an energy bolt that nearly cripples the ship, but then Burl obliterates the alien completely with an atomic blast.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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| null |
3y97dr | steam trading cards, gems, mystery cards, etc... | [
{
"answer": "**Steam Trading Cards are virtual cards earned by playing games on Steam. Sets of cards can be turned into game badges and tradable Steam community items.**\n\n**Once you’ve collected a set of cards you can craft them into a game badge. Like the current badges, they are tied to your account and are shown on your profile. Unlike the current badges, crafting game badges earns you marketable items like emoticons, profile backgrounds, and coupons.**\n\n**Level up your badge by collecting the set again and earning more items.**\n\n**All badges now have XP which contributes to your Steam Level, a summary of your badge collection. You can view someone’s Steam Level by hovering over their avatar. Leveling up earns you non-tradable items like profile showcases, extra friends list slots, and more.**",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You can turn a set of trading cards in and craft them in order to make a unique emotion/background/% off coupon, then you can use the background on your steam profile and the emoticons and what not (see _URL_0_ and my plutia background made from hyperdimension neptunia re;birth 3 cards)... if you need more information feel free to add me on steam and ask. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Its a silly collectible thing. Just sell all your cards, they suggest a price based on market trends. You'll get a few cents per card, but it'll add up over time.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "56234763",
"title": "Steam Trading Cards",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
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"text": "Steam Trading Cards are a digital commodity issued by Valve Corporation for use on its digital distribution platform, Steam. Steam Trading Cards are a non-physical analogue of conventional trading cards, which are periodically granted to Steam users for playing games, fulfilling tasks, or by random chance. Cards can be \"crafted\" to acquire Steam-centric awards such as emoticons or profile backgrounds, traded to other Steam users, or sold through the Steam Community Market for store credit.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "56234763",
"title": "Steam Trading Cards",
"section": "Section::::Description.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 683,
"text": "Like their physical counterparts, Steam Trading Cards are a collectible commodity which are routinely traded, bought, and sold. Supported games each have their own set of trading cards, which typically incorporate game art in their designs. After collecting a full set of trading cards, the user has the option to \"craft\" the cards, permanently removing them from their Steam inventory in exchange for a game-themed emoticon, profile background, profile badge, and an amount of Steam \"XP\". XP can be used to increase a profile's level, which unlocks more profile customization options, increases the friend limit cap, and raises the probability of \"booster pack\" trading card drops.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "56234763",
"title": "Steam Trading Cards",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "Since their introduction in 2013, Steam Trading Card sets have been integrated into over 7,000 games. The developer revenue gained through trading card sales has attracted undesirable attention from \"asset flippers\"; developers who release low-quality games onto Steam solely to profit from their trading cards. In a series of blog posts, Valve condemned this behavior, calling such games \"fake games\", and claimed that trading card farming was responsible for damaging the Steam storefront.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "56234763",
"title": "Steam Trading Cards",
"section": "Section::::Impact.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 1022,
"text": "As Steam Trading Cards afforded developers a means to generate revenue beyond game sales, trading cards soon became one of the driving forces behind \"asset flipping\", the process by which Steam games are cheaply and quickly made, often with store-bought assets and minimal differences between each other, in the hopes of netting profit through trading card sales. In an April 2017 joint conference with game commentators Jim Sterling and John \"TotalBiscuit\" Bain, Valve agreed that a large portion of games on Steam only existed to \"mill\" cards for profit, with Valve labeling these asset flips as \"fake games\". In May 2017, Valve claimed that these \"fake games\" harmed Steam by feeding \"faux data\" into the storefront's algorithm, which resulted in asset flips being granted a disproportionate amount of storefront exposure relative to the number of people actually playing them. To counter this, Valve implemented a \"confidence metric\" system, wherein trading cards can only drop for games which pass a sales threshold.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "56234763",
"title": "Steam Trading Cards",
"section": "Section::::Distribution.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 554,
"text": "Steam Trading Cards are distributed through several methods; if a game has a trading card set, playing that game will periodically grant the player trading cards until a threshold is met. For most games, this threshold is reached once the user has received half the number of cards required for a full set. For free to play games, cards won't drop until the player makes a purchase associated with that game. \"Booster packs\", which contain a random assortment of three cards from a game, will periodically drop for users who have hit the drop threshold.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "56234763",
"title": "Steam Trading Cards",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 642,
"text": "In the years prior to the introduction of Steam Trading Cards, Valve implemented multiple features into Steam to facilitate the trading, buying, and selling of virtual goods. Steam Trading was introduced in 2011, which allows users to trade virtual game items between each other. During the 2011 Steam Winter Sale, users could complete objectives in select games to receive virtual \"coal\" which could then be redeemed for prizes, a progenitor to the system that would later be utilized for Steam Trading Cards. The Steam Community Market was introduced in late 2012, which enables Steam users to buy and sell virtual goods with store credit.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "146563",
"title": "Wizards of the Coast",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 633,
"text": "Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. Originally a basement-run role-playing game publisher, the company popularized the collectible card game genre with \"\" in the mid-1990s, acquired the popular \"Dungeons & Dragons\" role-playing game by purchasing the failing company TSR, and further increased its success by publishing the licensed \"Pokémon Trading Card Game\". The company's corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington in the United States.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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}
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}
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| null |
51sysz | how is your normal facial expression decided? | [
{
"answer": "Genetics, Stressers and muscle memory. \n\nGenes is the first thing, you can't change these this can cause things from your skin, your face shape and where fat wants to reside. \n\nStressers like age, sun damage and sleep deprivations as well as allergic reactions affect the look of your face beyond genetics. \n\nAnd muscle memory affects your expression based off of how your face usually is, doing it's best to give them impression the majority of the time. Usually people have a resting face that is mostly expressionless, but it might have a hint of excitement or a hint of disgust for example that gives the impression of a happy person or a \"Resting Bitchy Face\". It doesn't recessarily mean if you're angry all the time you will get an angry resting face, it just means that facial expressions can overtime affect your resting face. ",
"provenance": null
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"answer": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "242760",
"title": "Facial expression",
"section": "Section::::Creation.:Facial muscles.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 564,
"text": "Facial expressions are vital to social communication between humans. They are caused by the movement of muscles that connect to the skin and fascia in the face. These muscles move the skin, creating lines and folds and causing the movement of facial features, such as the mouth and eyebrows. These muscles develop from the second pharyngeal arch in the embryo. The temporalis, masseter, and internal and external pterygoid muscles, which are mainly used for chewing, have a minor effect on expression as well. These muscles develop from the first pharyngeal arch.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "33932515",
"title": "Social cue",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
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"text": "Facial expressions are signals that we make by moving our facial muscles on our face. Facial expressions generally signify an emotional state, and each emotional state and/or state of mind has a specific facial expression, many of which are universally used around the world. Without seeing someone's facial expression, one would not be able to see if the other person is crying, happy, angry, etc. Furthermore, facial expressions enable us to further comprehend what is going on during situations that are very difficult and/or confusing.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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"wikipedia_id": "41068159",
"title": "Developmental differences in solitary facial expressions",
"section": "Section::::Discrimination and expression.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 1496,
"text": "Facial expressions are produced to express a reaction to a situation or event or to evoke a response from another individual or individuals. They are signals of emotion and social intent. People make faces in response to \"direct audience effects\" when they are watching sports, discussing politics, eating or smelling, in pain, and see or hear something humorous. While one may have the same emotional reaction to a particular situation, he or she is more likely to express this emotion via a facial expression if they are in a social situation. Smiles, in particular, are \"evolved signaling displays [that] are the result of selective pressures for conspicuous, stereotyped, and redundant communication\". Smiling is a visual signal that requires eye contact from the recipient to the one smiling and is intended to communicate a feeling of happiness and joy. In an experiment by Alan Fridlund, smiling occurred least when one was watching a video alone, then more often when a person was alone watching the video but believed a friend was performing another task, even more often when that person believed a friend was simultaneously watching the video somewhere else, and most often when one was watching a movie with a friend physically present. This evidence shows that even if someone has the same internal reaction to a stimulus (like a movie), they are more likely to externalize these feelings when surrounded by peers or under the assumption that peers are engaged in the same activity.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "366663",
"title": "Body language",
"section": "Section::::Physical expressions.:Facial expressions.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 225,
"text": "Facial expression is integral when expressing emotions through the body. Combinations of eyes, eyebrow, lips, nose, and cheek movements help form different moods of an individual (example happy, sad, depressed, angry, etc.).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "242760",
"title": "Facial expression",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 527,
"text": "A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. According to one set of controversial theories, these movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information between humans, but they also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species. (For a discussion of the controversies on these claims, see Fridlund and Russell & Fernandez Dols.)\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "566664",
"title": "Nonverbal communication",
"section": "Section::::Gestures.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 32,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 32,
"end_character": 537,
"text": "Facial expressions, more than anything, serve as a practical means of communication. With all the various muscles that precisely control mouth, lips, eyes, nose, forehead, and jaw, human faces are estimated to be capable of more than ten thousand different expressions. This versatility makes non-verbals of the face extremely efficient and honest, unless deliberately manipulated. In addition, many of these emotions, including happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, shame, anguish and interest are universally recognized.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "242760",
"title": "Facial expression",
"section": "Section::::Communication.:Sign languages.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 28,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 28,
"end_character": 962,
"text": "Facial expression is used in sign languages to convey specific meanings. In American Sign Language (ASL), for instance, raised eyebrows combined with a slightly forward head tilt indicate that what is being signed is a yes/no question. Lowered eyebrows are used for wh-word questions. Facial expression is also used in sign languages to show adverbs and adjectives such as distance or size: an open mouth, squinted eyes, and tilted back head indicate something far while the mouth pulled to one side and the cheek held toward the shoulder indicate something close, and puffed cheeks mean very large. It can also show the manner in which something is done, such as carelessly or routinely. Some of these expressions, also called non-manual signs, are used similarly in different sign languages while others are different from one language to another. For example, the expression used for 'carelessly' in ASL means 'boring or unpleasant' in British Sign Language.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
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}
]
}
]
| null |
37daro | How much of their forces did germany devote to the eastern front in WWI? | [
{
"answer": "By February 1916 the Germans had c. 50 divisions on the eastern front; by September of that year, the number had risen to c. 70 divisions. When the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, there were 1.5 million German troops in the East, of which 500 000 were shifted to the Western Front by the spring of 1918, starting already in late 1917. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1672482",
"title": "Non-Germans in the German armed forces during World War II",
"section": "Section::::Background and history.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 677,
"text": "On the Eastern Front the volunteers and conscripts in the \"Ostlegionen\" comprised a fighting force equivalent of 30 German divisions by the end of 1943. By mid-1944 upwards of 600,000 troops of the Eastern Legions/Troops were assembled under the command of General Ernst-August Köstring, stemming mostly from the periphery of the Soviet empire; they consisted of non-Slavic Muslim minorities like the Turkestanis, the Volga Tatars, Northern Caucasians, and Azerbaijanis, as well as Georgians and Armenians. The overall effectiveness of Nazi Germany's military collaborators was described by one German commander as one-fifth good, one-fifth bad, and three-fifths inconsistent.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2171144",
"title": "2nd Red Banner Army",
"section": "Section::::History.:World War II.:Garrison duty in the Far East.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 706,
"text": "During World War II, the army covered the border around Blagoveshchensk and sent reinforcements to the active forces fighting on the Eastern Front. Following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941, a directive dated 25 June transferred the 59th Tank and 69th Motorized Divisions by rail to the Eastern Front. On 28 June the 31st SmAD departed for the Eastern Front, and remaining units, including the 3rd Fighter Aviation Regiment, were made directly subordinate to the Air Force (VVS) of the 2nd KA. In August the 95th Mixed Aviation Division was formed in the VVS of the 2nd KA; it became the 95th Fighter Aviation Division (IAD) by 1 September. \n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "25682",
"title": "Red Army",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 381,
"text": "The Red Army provided the largest land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II, and its invasion of Manchuria assisted the unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan. During operations on the Eastern Front, it accounted for 75–80% of casualties the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS suffered during the war and ultimately captured the Nazi German capital, Berlin.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "33102",
"title": "Battle of Kursk",
"section": "Section::::Opposing forces.:Germans.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 44,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 44,
"end_character": 939,
"text": "For the operation, the Germans used four armies along with a large portion of their total tank strength on the Eastern Front. On 1 July, the 9th Army of Army Group Centre based in the northern side of the salient contained 335,000 men (223,000 combat soldiers); in the south, the 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment \"Kempf\", of Army Group South, had 223,907 men (149,271 combat soldiers) and 100,000–108,000 men (66,000 combat soldiers) respectively. The 2nd Army, that held the western side of the salient contained an estimated 110,000. In total, the German forces had a total strength of 777,000–779,000 men, and the three attacking armies contained 438,271 combat soldiers. Army Group South was equipped with more armoured vehicles, infantry and artillery than the 9th Army of Army Group Center. The 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment \"Kempf\" had 1,377 tanks and assault guns, while the 9th Army possessed 988 tanks and assault guns.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1687619",
"title": "Polish–Soviet War in 1919",
"section": "Section::::Chaos in Eastern Europe.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 1077,
"text": "In 1918, the German Army in the east was the most powerful force in the region. Even more importantly, it was not only undefeated, it was victorious (in contrast to the German Army on the western front). However the commander of the German forces in the east, Max Hoffmann, a chief negotiator in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, was facing increasing difficulties. He believed, rightly, that his army was the only stabilising influence over the Eastern Europe. Yet with the disintegration of Austria-Hungary, rise of Bolsheviks in the east and various independent governments between the former frontline and Germany, the former \"Oberkommando-Ostfront\" (or \"Ober-Ost\") occupation zone became a thin line to nowhere, connected only to still-German Prussia. The deteriorating situation in Germany, facing the threat of civil war, eventually forced Hoffman to begin to retreat westwards, to Germany, in December 1918. Demoralized officers and mutinous soldiers abandoned their garrisons \"en masse\" and returned home. Only a limited number of units still retained any combat strength.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1546731",
"title": "9th Army (Wehrmacht)",
"section": "Section::::History.:1943.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 12,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 12,
"end_character": 633,
"text": "The Germans tried again in 1943 to regain the momentum in the Eastern Front by launching a massive pincer movement at the Kursk salient where 1/6th of all Soviet forces were deployed. The spearheads would be the German 9th Army and the 2nd Panzer Army from the north and the 4th Panzer Army along with Army Detachment Kempf from the south. The Soviets believed the heaviest blow would come from the north and massively reinforced the sector directly opposite 9th Army. By July 1943, the 9th Army had become the largest army ever fielded by the Germans even surpassing the much vaunted 6th Army with 335,000 men along with 600 tanks.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "7618544",
"title": "Macedonian front",
"section": "Section::::1918.:Military operations.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 25,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 25,
"end_character": 1659,
"text": "The Allied forces were now large, despite the Russian exit from the war due to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Greece and its army (9 divisions) were fully committed to the Entente, while 6,000 Czech and Slovak former prisoners of war held on the Italian front were re-armed, re-organized, and transferred to the Macedonian front to fight for the Entente. The Bulgarians had also increased their army during 1917, and in total manpower, the two sides were roughly equal battalions vs. battalions, plus ten German battalions). However, as 1918 progressed, it was clear that the Entente had momentum the Central Powers lacked. Russian defeat had yielded no meaningful benefit to the Central Powers. The Ottoman Empire faced progressive loss of Arab lands. In Austria-Hungary, non-German and non-Hungarian parts of the multinational empire grew more openly restive. On the Western Front, intense German spring offensives had not defeated France, while American deployment was increasingly effective. Though Bulgaria and the United States were not at war with each other, German victory over the United States appeared conceptually infeasible. Finally, and most importantly for Bulgaria, almost all of its territorial war aims were already achieved, but as World War I was not merely a third Balkan War, Bulgaria could not quit. Alongside its partners, Bulgaria continued to suffer high casualties and civilian privation, including food shortages, seemingly to achieve the unrealized objectives of its allies. As a constitutional monarchy, Bulgaria depended on the consent of its people to keep fighting, while stress and discontent with the war grew.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
kv9q1 | hypodermic needle model. | [
{
"answer": "The magic bullet theory is that for the every person in the world when effected by a specific message will have a specific reaction.\n\nThe general concept was that if a person was presented with advertising or propaganda they would react in a specific way as a passive participant in the process, being immediately effected by the information. Or your message is fired like a magic bullet into the person brain.\n\nThe theory is generally considered disproved by studies of election results which showed the marketing and propaganda effect different audience and groups differently even though the marketing was the same. People who were subject to propaganda were often not effected by the material and were more effect by the attitude of their social group when choosing who to vote for.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The magic bullet theory is that for the every person in the world when effected by a specific message will have a specific reaction.\n\nThe general concept was that if a person was presented with advertising or propaganda they would react in a specific way as a passive participant in the process, being immediately effected by the information. Or your message is fired like a magic bullet into the person brain.\n\nThe theory is generally considered disproved by studies of election results which showed the marketing and propaganda effect different audience and groups differently even though the marketing was the same. People who were subject to propaganda were often not effected by the material and were more effect by the attitude of their social group when choosing who to vote for.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "295248",
"title": "Hypodermic needle model",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
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"end_character": 436,
"text": "The hypodermic needle model (known as the hypodermic-syringe model, transmission-belt model, or magic bullet theory) is a model of communication suggesting that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. The model was originally rooted in 1930s behaviorism and largely considered obsolete for a long time, but big data analytics-based mass customization has led to a modern revival of the basic idea.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "997173",
"title": "Electromyography",
"section": "Section::::Technique.:Skin preparation and risks.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 723,
"text": "The actual placement of the needle electrode can be difficult and depends on a number of factors, such as specific muscle selection and the size of that muscle. Proper needle EMG placement is very important for accurate representation of the muscle of interest, although EMG is more effective on superficial muscles as it is unable to bypass the action potentials of superficial muscles and detect deeper muscles. Also, the more body fat an individual has, the weaker the EMG signal. When placing the EMG sensor, the ideal location is at the belly of the muscle: the longitudinal midline. The belly of the muscle can also be thought of as in-between the motor point (middle) of the muscle and the tendonus insertion point.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "59409731",
"title": "Schiffli embroidery machine",
"section": "Section::::Principle.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 481,
"text": "Needle spacing, or pitch, limited the width of the embroidered design. The spacing between the needles is known as rapport. The unit for measuring spacing was the French inch (1.08 English inch). Standard spacing was known as 4/4 rapport. Machines with 3/4, 4/4, and 6/4 were typical. Theses machines had 342, 228, and 156 needles per row. Wider needle spacing and thus larger designs could be produced by removing some of the needles.This was known as 6/4, 12/4, or 16/4 rapport.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "295248",
"title": "Hypodermic needle model",
"section": "Section::::Two-step flow.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 273,
"text": "The phrasing \"hypodermic needle\" is meant to give a mental image of the direct, strategic, and planned infusion of a message into an individual. But as research methodology became more highly developed, it became apparent that the media had selective influences on people.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "320351",
"title": "Hypodermic needle",
"section": "Section::::Manufacture.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 397,
"text": "Hypodermic needles are normally made from a stainless-steel tube through a process known as tube drawing where the tube is drawn through progressively smaller dies to make the needle. The needles are designed with the same general features, including a barrel, plunger, needle and cap. The end of the needle is bevelled to create a sharp pointed tip, letting the needle easily penetrate the skin.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "13835827",
"title": "Skin biopsy",
"section": "Section::::Types.:Fine needle aspirate.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 827,
"text": "Needle aspiration biopsy is done with the rapid stabbing motion of the hand guiding a needle tipped syringe and the rapid sucking motion applied to the syringe. It is a method used to diagnose tumor deep in the skin or lymph nodes under the skin. The cellular aspirate is mounted on a glass slide and immediate diagnosis can be made with proper staining or submitted to a laboratory for final diagnosis. A fine needle aspirate can be done with simply a small bore needle and a small syringe (1 cc) that can generate rapid changes in suction pressure. Fine needle aspirate can be used to distinguish a cystic lesion from a lipoma. Both the surgeon and the pathologist must be familiar with the method of procuring, fixing, and reading of the slide. Many centers have dedicated teams used in the harvest of fine needle aspirate.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "15236565",
"title": "Hand knitting",
"section": "Section::::Tools.:Needles.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 72,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 72,
"end_character": 344,
"text": "The fourth type of needle is a hybrid needle. It is a straight needle with a point on one end and a flexible strand on the other end with a stopper, such as a large lightweight bead, at the end. This type of needle allows a larger project to be worked at one time than a straight needle, while folding up quickly and more compactly for travel.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
4hscla | [Human Body] Is it possible to feel pain that is not actually there? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. The simplest example would be phantom limb syndrome. There are no nerves to stimulate in this situation. Phantom limb is considered neuropathic pain, but we still don't quite fully understand the mechanism behind it.\n\nBeyond that there are disorders that can lead to allodynia. This is when you experience pain from normally non-noxious stimuli such as a breeze. It is thought to be due to a central process in the brain. Allodynia is most notably implicated in migraines and fibromylagia. ",
"provenance": null
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{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
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"wikipedia_id": "48376645",
"title": "Pain in amphibians",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 240,
"text": "Pain is an aversive sensation and feeling associated with actual, or potential, tissue damage. It is widely accepted by a broad spectrum of scientists and philosophers that non-human animals can perceive pain, including pain in amphibians.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "22039284",
"title": "Wide dynamic range neuron",
"section": "Section::::Role in pain responses.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 7,
"end_character": 506,
"text": "There are two main types of pain that we experience in our bodies: pain caused by damage of body tissue and pain caused by nerve damage. Nociceptive pain serves as a warning or signal for tissue damage and works to preserve the body’s equilibrium and functionality. This pain is signaled by the interworkings of both the peripheral and central nervous systems. Another type of pain, known as neuropathic pain, is caused by a direct problem or disease that affects the nerves in the central nervous system.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "50558073",
"title": "Pain in cephalopods",
"section": "Section::::Background.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 224,
"text": "The possibility that non-human animals may be capable of perceiving pain has a long history. Initially, this was based around theoretical and philosophical argument, but more recently has turned to scientific investigation.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "326481",
"title": "Irritation",
"section": "Section::::Irritation in organisms.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 292,
"text": "It is postulated that most such beings also feel pain, but this is a projection – empathy. Some philosophers, notably René Descartes, denied it entirely, even for such higher mammals as dogs or primates like monkeys; Descartes considered intelligence a pre-requisite for the feeling of pain.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "613318",
"title": "Congenital insensitivity to pain",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 545,
"text": "Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), also known as congenital analgesia, is one or more rare conditions in which a person cannot feel (and has never felt) physical pain. The conditions described here are separate from the HSAN group of disorders, which have more specific signs and cause. Because feeling physical pain is vital for survival, CIP is an extremely dangerous condition. It is common for people with the condition to die in childhood due to injuries or illnesses going unnoticed. Burn injuries are among the more common injuries.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "23416874",
"title": "Sense",
"section": "Section::::Other senses.:Pain.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 34,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 34,
"end_character": 919,
"text": "Nociception (physiological pain) signals nerve-damage or damage to tissue. The three types of pain receptors are cutaneous (skin), somatic (joints and bones), and visceral (body organs). It was previously believed that pain was simply the overloading of pressure receptors, but research in the first half of the 20th century indicated that pain is a distinct phenomenon that intertwines with all of the other senses, including touch. Pain was once considered an entirely subjective experience, but recent studies show that pain is registered in the anterior cingulate gyrus of the brain. The main function of pain is to attract our attention to dangers and motivate us to avoid them. For example, humans avoid touching a sharp needle, or hot object, or extending an arm beyond a safe limit because it is dangerous, and thus hurts. Without pain, people could do many dangerous things without being aware of the dangers.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "24261150",
"title": "Pain in animals",
"section": "Section::::The experience of pain.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 579,
"text": "Although there are numerous definitions of pain, almost all involve two key components. First, nociception is required. This is the ability to detect noxious stimuli which evoke a reflex response that rapidly moves the entire animal, or the affected part of its body, away from the source of the stimulus. The concept of nociception does not imply any adverse, subjective \"feeling\" – it is a reflex action. An example in humans would be the rapid withdrawal of a finger that has touched something hot – the withdrawal occurs before any sensation of pain is actually experienced.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
4ciopy | why do some things need 4 aaa batteries instead of fewer number of a stronger battery? example: why use 4 aaa when one might be able to use 2aa. | [
{
"answer": "AA are not \"stronger\" than AAA, they just have more power reserve. \n\nThey both put out the same voltage though AA can probably do so at a higher amperage if required. \n\n\nBy arranging the batteries in different combinations of parallel and series you can get different combinations of \"power\" (voltage) or battery life (mAh). ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Voltage is determined by battery chemistry (the metal plates and the electrolyte solution between them), not size. Garden variety alkaline D, C, AA, and AAA cells all supply 1.5V. The bigger ones just supply that voltage for longer. A single alkaline battery with the chemistry of a AAA battery but the size of a shipping container would still only supply 1.5V, but it will probably supply that 1.5V until you die of old age.\n\nIf the 4 AAA are used in series because they need to add up to 6V, then you'd have to replace them with 4 of another size, which would give you longer run time. If the 4 AAA are used in parallel because they need to supply 1.5 or 3V for longer run time, you could indeed replace them with 2 AA.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1013859",
"title": "AAA battery",
"section": "Section::::Use.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 590,
"text": "AAA batteries are most often used in small electronic devices, such as TV remote controls, MP3 players and digital cameras. Devices that require the same voltage, but have a higher current draw, are often designed to use larger batteries such as the AA battery type. AA batteries have about three times the capacity of AAA batteries. With the increasing efficiency and miniaturization of modern electronics, many devices that previously were designed for AA batteries (remote controls, cordless computer mice and keyboards, etc.) are being replaced by models that accept AAA battery cells.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
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"wikipedia_id": "1013859",
"title": "AAA battery",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
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"text": "An AAA or triple-A battery is a standard size of dry cell battery commonly used in low-drain portable electronic devices. A zinc–carbon battery in this size is designated by IEC as \"R03\", by ANSI C18.1 as \"24\", by old JIS standard as \"UM 4\", and by other manufacturer and national standard designations that vary depending on the cell chemistry.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1013859",
"title": "AAA battery",
"section": "Section::::Use.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 284,
"text": "As of 2007, AAA batteries accounted for 24% of alkaline primary battery sales in the United States. In Japan as of 2011, 28% of alkaline primary batteries sold were AAA. In Switzerland as of 2008, AAA batteries totaled 30% of primary battery sales and 32% of secondary battery sales.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "57870311",
"title": "Aqueous lithium-ion battery",
"section": "Section::::Applications.:Military.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 534,
"text": "Aqueous Li-ion batteries have been of great interest for military use due to their safety and durability. Unlike the high voltage yet volatile non-aqueous Li-ion batteries, aqueous Li-ion batteries have the potential to serve as a more reliable energy source on the battlefield, because external damage to the battery would not diminish performance or cause it to explode. In addition, they are less heavy than traditional batteries and can be manufactured in different shapes, allowing for lighter gear and more efficient placement.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1592019",
"title": "AA battery",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 458,
"text": "AA batteries are common in portable electronic devices. An AA battery is composed of a single electrochemical cell that may be either a primary battery (disposable) or a rechargeable battery. Several different chemistries are used for their construction. The exact terminal voltage, capacity and practical discharge rates depend on cell chemistry; however, devices designed for AA cells will usually only take 1.2-1.5 V unless specified by the manufacturer.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2652533",
"title": "GP2X",
"section": "Section::::Hardware.:Power.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 39,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 39,
"end_character": 232,
"text": "The GP2X requires 2 AA-sized batteries if not running from an external power supply. Due to the high current drain, standard alkaline batteries will not function for very long in the GP2X; NiMH or lithium batteries are recommended.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "5107128",
"title": "CR-V3 battery",
"section": "Section::::Disposable CR-V3 batteries.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 379,
"text": "Often, a CR-V3 battery is a single cell based on a non-rechargeable lithium battery chemistry, with a nominal voltage of 3 V (the same as 2 alkaline AA batteries). Because both lithium and lithium-ion chemistries offer higher energy density than NiMH rechargeable batteries or even alkaline batteries, a CR-V3 battery is designed to last much longer than a pair of AA batteries.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
76qlhy | Would a black hole really appear as a sphere like in Interstellar? | [
{
"answer": "The science advisor for interstellar was Kip Thorne, who just shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his modelling of the gravitational waveform emitted by two merging black holes. He had the movie studio run a relativistic ray tracing code to generate the images of the black hole (given a small accretion disk in place around it). The simulation was the most detailed of its type ever made, and resulted in the publication of 2 academic papers. It did not include magneto-hydrodynamic modelling of the material in the disc, and left out some effects such as doppler boosting, doppler shifting, and gravitational redshifting, but the Einstein ring around the black hole is entirely a result of the light travel paths around the black hole in accordance with GR. \n\nSo yes!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Matter attraction via gravity clumps material. Little material, little form control resulting in some irregular shapes. The more mass, the more spherical the object as the stronger and stronger gravity attempts to cram maximum matter into a single spot. It doesn't take much, as even the asteroid Ceres attempts to gather spherically. There is only so much room for the molecules to gather so they collect in a ball/spherical shape as they grow and absorb matter (accretion). Some planets and stars may have bulges that make them lightly asymmetrical, but it's not likely in a blackhole. One thing that could distort a black holes appearance is if has relativistic ion jets. But A black hole is a sphere in the sense that everything that goes within its Schwarzschild radius (the distance from the center of the black hole to the event horizon) cannot escape its gravity. Thus, there is a dark sphere ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Interstellar is probably the most accurate model of a black hole we have made thus far (as someone else also mentioned). And yes a black hole would appear spherical, black holes are made when matter is compacted into such a small volume that not even light can escape the gravitational pull near it, and the black sphere you would see is the area that light can't escape from.\n\nBut black holes are super interesting. Inside of a black hole is a weird place, spacetime is so twisted that no matter which \"direction\" you move you are moving in towards the center of it. Another fun fact is that you can never see something cross the event horizon (the black area that looks like the \"surface\" of it) since the light leaving something would come to a standstill (and be red shifted out of the visible spectrum) and never reach you. But unless you get close to/inside a black hole you wouldn't experience much unusual, at the end of the day it's just a really a really dense object. If our moon was suddenly replaced by a black hole of the same mass not much would change other than our night sky being darker.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I wonder if the question was meant to be about wormholes, as in the movie they mentioned why it's a sphere.\n\nIt would be another interesting question anyways; I've always wondered if going through one would really be like a rollercoaster ride as in Interstellar, Contact, etc, or would extremely distant objects simply be(come) closer and we would just travel between them without noticing the wormhole.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3072290",
"title": "Photon sphere",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 560,
"text": "For non-rotating black holes, the photon sphere is a sphere of radius 3/2 \"r\". There are no stable free fall orbits that exist within or cross the photon sphere. Any free fall orbit that crosses it from the outside spirals into the black hole. Any orbit that crosses it from the inside escapes to infinity or falls back in and spirals into the black hole. No unaccelerated orbit with a semi-major axis less than this distance is possible, but within the photon sphere, a constant acceleration will allow a spacecraft or probe to hover above the event horizon.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "4650",
"title": "Black hole",
"section": "Section::::Properties and structure.:Photon sphere.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 48,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 48,
"end_character": 600,
"text": "The photon sphere is a spherical boundary of zero thickness in which photons that move on tangents to that sphere would be trapped in a circular orbit about the black hole. For non-rotating black holes, the photon sphere has a radius 1.5 times the Schwarzschild radius. Their orbits would be dynamically unstable, hence any small perturbation, such as a particle of infalling matter, would cause an instability that would grow over time, either setting the photon on an outward trajectory causing it to escape the black hole, or on an inward spiral where it would eventually cross the event horizon.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "8579903",
"title": "Black holes in fiction",
"section": "Section::::Games.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 110,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 110,
"end_character": 459,
"text": "BULLET::::- In \"\", a supermassive black hole can be seen in the background of space with Astrophysical jets emitted from its poles as Samus' gunship descends to Planet SR388 indicating that the home world of the Metroids and X Parasites is near enough from the center of its or another galaxy for the black hole to be visible from space. However the exact distance from it is unclear given its supermassive size may make it appear closer than it actually is.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "456715",
"title": "Kerr metric",
"section": "Section::::Features of the Kerr geometry.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 49,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 49,
"end_character": 1041,
"text": "A surface on which light can orbit a black hole is called a photon sphere. The Kerr solution has infinitely many photon spheres, lying between an inner one and an outer one. In the nonrotating, Schwarzschild solution, with \"a\"=0, the inner and outer photon spheres degenerate, so that there is only one photon sphere at a single radius. The greater the spin of a black hole, the farther from each other the inner and outer photon spheres move. A beam of light traveling in a direction opposite to the spin of the black hole will circularly orbit the hole at the outer photon sphere. A beam of light traveling in the same direction as the black hole's spin will circularly orbit at the inner photon sphere. Orbiting geodesics with some angular momentum perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the black hole will orbit on photon spheres between these two extremes. Because the space-time is rotating, such orbits exhibit a precession, since there is a shift in the formula_28 variable after completing one period in the formula_29 variable.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "206115",
"title": "Schwarzschild radius",
"section": "Section::::Black hole classification by Schwarzschild radius.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 345,
"text": "Any object whose radius is smaller than its Schwarzschild radius is called a black hole. The surface at the Schwarzschild radius acts as an event horizon in a non-rotating body (a rotating black hole operates slightly differently). Neither light nor particles can escape through this surface from the region inside, hence the name \"black hole\".\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "681666",
"title": "Penrose diagram",
"section": "Section::::Black holes.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 828,
"text": "While the basic space-like passage of a static black hole cannot be traversed, the Penrose diagrams for solutions representing rotating and/or electrically charged black holes illustrate these solutions' inner event horizons (lying in the future) and vertically oriented singularities, which open up what is known as a time-like \"wormhole\" allowing passage into future universes. In the case of the rotating hole, there is also a \"negative\" universe entered through a ring-shaped singularity (still portrayed as a line in the diagram) that can be passed through if entering the hole close to its axis of rotation. These features of the solutions are, however, not stable and not believed to be a realistic description of the interior regions of such black holes; the true character of their interiors is still an open question.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "3072290",
"title": "Photon sphere",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_character": 300,
"text": "The photon sphere is located farther from the center of a black hole than the event horizon. Within a photon sphere, it is possible to imagine a photon that begins at the back of your head, orbiting the black hole, only then to be intercepted by your eyes, allowing you to see the back of your head.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
3jmayz | Would I move in opposite direction in space if I pushed smaller object then me ? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. If you give the bowling ball momentum in one direction, you will have the same momentum in the opposite direction. This is the same principle that allows rockets to work: exhaust goes in one direction, rocket goes in the other.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "574544",
"title": "Circular motion",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 288,
"text": "Since the object's velocity vector is constantly changing direction, the moving object is undergoing acceleration by a centripetal force in the direction of the center of rotation. Without this acceleration, the object would move in a straight line, according to Newton's laws of motion.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "570922",
"title": "Action at a distance",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 1,
"end_character": 267,
"text": "In physics, action at a distance is the concept that an object can be moved, changed, or otherwise affected without being physically touched (as in mechanical contact) by another object. That is, it is the nonlocal interaction of objects that are separated in space.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "18376779",
"title": "Ringo (game)",
"section": "Section::::Rules.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 14,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 14,
"end_character": 363,
"text": "BULLET::::- Attackers may move one space forward (from their perspective) toward the citadel, or one space left or right on the same ring exclusively. The space being moved into must be vacant with the exception of the citadel which can already be occupied by a fellow attacker. Attackers may not move backwards (from their perspective) or away from the citadel.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "34473820",
"title": "Space Harmony",
"section": "Section::::Related terms.:Kinesphere.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 11,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 11,
"end_character": 384,
"text": "The personal space or Kinesphere is the space around us within reaching possibilities of the limbs without changing one's place. We can use a large area around us (Far Reach Kinesphere) when we use big movements, especially with our limbs. Or we can use a small area (Near Reach Kinesphere) when we move only within near reach of ourselves. In between is called Mid Reach Kinesphere.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "18376779",
"title": "Ringo (game)",
"section": "Section::::Rules.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 15,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 15,
"end_character": 608,
"text": "BULLET::::- Defenders can move one space forward (from their perspective) which is away from the citadel, or backward (from their perspective) which is towards the citadel, but they may not move into the citadel (this rule may also imply that a defender on the second ring cannot perform a capturing leap over an attacker on the first ring, and land on the citadel). They may also move left or right any number of unoccupied spaces on the same ring, but if moving into a space in the Neutral Zone, the defender must stop and end its turn. This prevents the defender from indefinitely moving around the ring.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "2443",
"title": "Acceleration",
"section": "Section::::Definition and properties.:Other forms.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 270,
"text": "An object moving in a circular motion—such as a satellite orbiting the Earth—is accelerating due to the change of direction of motion, although its speed may be constant. In this case it is said to be undergoing \"centripetal\" (directed towards the center) acceleration.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "7783",
"title": "Coriolis force",
"section": "Section::::Formula.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 25,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 25,
"end_character": 201,
"text": "BULLET::::- if the velocity is straight outward from the axis, the Coriolis force is against the direction of local rotation. (In the tower example, a ball launched upward would move toward the west.)\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
2drlxm | Historically speaking, Ukraine wasn't where it is now. It's in what used to belong to Crimea. What's the logic behind Ukraine's placement after the fall of the USSR? | [
{
"answer": "I'm no expert so I don't have any answer, but could you clarify what you're talking about a little? If I look at some easy-to-find sources (wikipedia, etc.) on the history of Ukraine, I'm not seeing anything that looks like this:\n\n > Ukraine was in a completely different part of Europe than we think of today (That is to say, more towards central-eastern Europe)\n\nBorders have changed a bit of course, but everything I saw seemed to be situated around the western/central regions of modern Ukraine. Maybe you have a map illustrating what you mean?\n\nThis might just be me not finding good sources, of course - I've not spent so long looking, and most searches for \"historical Ukraine\" and the like are just full of information about historical sites within Ukraine... ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3546282",
"title": "Name of Ukraine",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 324,
"text": "From 1922 until 1991, \"Ukraine\" (also \"the Ukraine\") was the name of the territory of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, \"Ukrayins'ka Radyans'ka Sotsialistychna Respublika\") within the Soviet Union (annexed by Germany as Reichskommissariat Ukraine during 1941–1944).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "42133018",
"title": "Autonomous Republic of Crimea",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 466,
"text": "Crimea was previously under Russian control from 1783 until 1954 (punctuated by short periods during political upheavals and wars), when it was transferred, within the USSR, to the Ukrainian SSR. Later, following a referendum on 20 January 1991, it was upgraded to the status of an autonomous republic within the Ukrainian SSR. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and Ukraine became an independent country, Crimea remained part of the newly independent Ukraine.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "479232",
"title": "Sectionalism",
"section": "Section::::In Ukraine.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 13,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 13,
"end_character": 478,
"text": "After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became its own unitary state, however, also containing regions heavily populated by Russians. This caused a few rebellions throughout the eastern parts of the nation, taking place in the self-declared republics of the Donetsk People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic, and the peninsula of Crimea. Crimea is disputed by both Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Many nations oppose Russia's annexation of Crimea.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "31750",
"title": "Ukraine",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 1002,
"text": "The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus' forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, but its territory was eventually split between Poland and the Russian Empire, and finally merged fully into the Russian-dominated Soviet Union in the late 1940s as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1991, Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in the aftermath of its dissolution at the end of the Cold War. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as \"The Ukraine\", but most sources have since moved to drop \"the\" from the name of Ukraine in all uses.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "376732",
"title": "Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
"end_character": 330,
"text": "The Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations, although it was legally represented by the All-Union state in its affairs with countries outside of the Soviet Union. Upon the Soviet Union's dissolution and \"perestroika\", the Ukrainian SSR was transformed into the modern nation-state and renamed itself to Ukraine.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "39410190",
"title": "Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement",
"section": "Section::::Background.:Ukraine.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 8,
"end_character": 584,
"text": "Beginning in the late 18th century most of Ukraine was first part of the Russian Empire. Afterwards, Western Ukraine was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and then passed to the Second Polish Republic until the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland. Ukraine then joined the Soviet Union (both the Russian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR united into the Soviet Union from 1922) until Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union on 24 August 1991. Independent Ukraine originally maintained strong ties with Russia, and as such Ukraine's economy became integrated with the Russian economy.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "376732",
"title": "Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic",
"section": "Section::::Name.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 10,
"end_character": 396,
"text": "The idea of Ukraine as borderland crept into the English language at some point. Therefore, while Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, Anglophones referred to the Ukrainian SSR as \"The Ukraine\". However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, the officially recognized name is simply \"Ukraine\". The definite article may imply that it is a land or general geographic area with unidentified borders.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
1d6iwd | how do cameras focus, and why does the background get blurry? | [
{
"answer": "This will work better if you're nearsighted, but should work even if you're not. Look at something in the distance that's blurry because it's far away. Now squint--see how, for a little moment, it's easier to see because you're squinting? Cameras essentially focus by 'squinting' -- adjusting the lens so that the focus is on something different.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "9732049",
"title": "Zoom burst",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 3,
"end_character": 332,
"text": "Photographs taken with this technique are characterized by blurred streaks emanating from the center of the photograph. The effect is nearly identical to a motion blur image in which the camera is traveling towards the subject. For this reason the zoom burst is typically used to create an impression of motion towards the subject.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "173175",
"title": "Motion blur",
"section": "Section::::Applications of motion blur.:Photography.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 5,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 5,
"end_character": 290,
"text": "Because the effect is caused by the relative motion between the camera, and the objects and scene, motion blur may be avoided by panning the camera to track those moving objects. In this case, even with long exposure times, the objects will appear sharper, and the background more blurred.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "571325",
"title": "Sample and hold",
"section": "Section::::Purpose.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 285,
"text": "During a scanning cycle, the picture doesn’t follow the input signal. This does not allow the eye to refresh and can lead to blurring during motion sequences, also the transition is visible between frames because the backlight is constantly illuminated, adding to display motion blur.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "33278282",
"title": "Intentional camera movement",
"section": "Section::::Relation to motion blur.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 9,
"end_character": 325,
"text": "A special case occurs when the camera is moved during exposure while keeping it pointed at a moving target, so as to hold its projection on the recording medium steady. The stationary environment (usually mainly background, but possibly also some foreground) then is subjected to ICM and appears streaked in the final image.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "324949",
"title": "Accelerometer",
"section": "Section::::Applications.:Consumer electronics.:Image stabilization.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 80,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 80,
"end_character": 790,
"text": "Camcorders use accelerometers for image stabilization, either by moving optical elements to adjust the light path to the sensor to cancel out unintended motions or digitally shifting the image to smooth out detected motion. Some stills cameras use accelerometers for anti-blur capturing. The camera holds off capturing the image when the camera is moving. When the camera is still (if only for a millisecond, as could be the case for vibration), the image is captured. An example of the application of this technology is the Glogger VS2, a phone application which runs on Symbian based phones with accelerometers such as the Nokia N96. Some digital cameras contain accelerometers to determine the orientation of the photo being taken and also for rotating the current picture when viewing.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "29990893",
"title": "Long-focus lens",
"section": "Section::::Effects.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 6,
"end_character": 294,
"text": "Long lenses also make it easier to blur the background more, even when the depth of field is the same; photographers will sometimes use this effect to defocus the background in an image to \"separate\" it from the subject. This background blurring is often referred to as bokeh by photographers.\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
},
{
"wikipedia_id": "1412580",
"title": "Science of photography",
"section": "Section::::Motion blur.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 20,
"end_character": 206,
"text": "Motion blur is caused when either the camera or the subject moves during the exposure. This causes a distinctive streaky appearance to the moving object or the entire picture (in the case of camera shake).\n",
"bleu_score": null,
"meta": null
}
]
}
]
| null |
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